This Is Us
by Quadplayer
Summary: This is a story about a quad/quint player who learns of love, friendship, and brotherhood throughout his four years of marching band. Rating may change due to content in future chapters.
1. Welcome to the Line

**_This is Us_**

August 1st, the beginning of band season. The beginning of band camp. I sighed deeply as I packed my sticks into my bag, and I looked at my mother as she hopped into the car. My name is Zane, Zane Evans. I'm fourteen, going on fifteen in October. I'm a drummer, and this year is my first year on quads, or tenors as my Battery Caption Head called it. I only played snare, and knew how to play matched grip, but I played traditional. Apparently they had three snares and four basses, but no one wanted to go to the quad had one quad player, but he wanted someone else to join him.

I never played on "real" tenor drums. Instead, I practiced on pads, a tutor helping me back from where I originally lived. I use to live in Virginia, but now I live in the great state of West Virginia, which was even worse. It was alot bigger, and I knew no one here. My mom was forced to move after she and my father got divorced.

"Tyler, did you pack your clothes and everything?" I sighed as I knocked my long blond hair out of my eyes. I didn't answer vocally, I nodded. I wasn't in a good mood to talk. I was dropped off at the school, Redskin High, I sighed again. Screw my life.

All of a sudden someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to see a tall guy with short black hair, his eyes a dark green. He had a little beard, and he nodded towards the door. "You're not going through that wait, only veterans can. You're a freshman, aren't you?"

I nodded shyly, I didn't know who this guy wanted with me.

"My name is Dale. I'm the senior section leader of the drumline, and you are...?" He looked as though he was studying me. So this is the guy I was suppose to find! I thanked God.

"My name is Zane, I just moved here from Virginia. I'm suppose to play quints." I answered, and Dale's grin turned into a smirk.

"Really? My new bitch?"

I gulped.

"I'm the senior quint player. Like you, I started out my freshman year on them. Of course, I was already good at it before I really started." Dale said, as he patted my head. He then proceeded to walk to the door as I sat there in silence. He stopped momentarily and waved his hand. "You can come this way, I don't mind. I'll say you're with me."

I scrambled and quickly followed my section leader as we walked through the school. The school was rather large, and had many pictures of sports teams. Their show choir even got up there. I didn't see any pictures of the marching band up there. Dale noticed the curiosity on my face and sighed.

"We get no respect. We're better than all these people and we still don't get any respect. Our drumline is the best in the state, and ranked nationally. But it's whatever, you know?"

I nodded, though he couldn't see the nod. Finally, we made it to the band room, where the whole band was sitting there, listening to the band director speak. The director stopped, and looked at us. He had extremely short black hair, and wore glasses.

"Dale...of course, late as usual. Who is this?" He asked, his look on me now. I then felt as though everyone in the room was looking at me. I looked around to see some girls just eyeing me, and guys studying me. I noticed they were broken into sections. The wind players, the brass, the pit, and finally, in the very back, the drumline.

"This, L, is our new quint player. His name is Zane."

People just kept staring at me, and I looked down. I was a bit embarrassed, and Dale noticed. L, the band director, apparently did as well.

"Well, Zane, we were just talking about band camp and we are now about to go warm up with our sections. Hopefully your parents got the memo?"

I nodded, and L smiled. "Good, now, Dale will help you with your equipment. Now, everyone, go." Everyone got out in a flash, the winds and brass going past Dale and I as we walked in the band room. The colorguard and the pit went out the back door, while the drumline stood inside.

I studied some of the members. There was only one girl out of all of them. She was plump, and had long dark red hair. The other two snares were boys, one had a Italian look, black hair with tan skin. The upper part of his teeth were yellow, I could see that they were from cigarette smoking. The other had brown hair and a goatee, another senior I was guessing. They were picking their snares up and walked over to the middle while Dale was talking to one of them.

The basses were next. The first bass was a boy with short hair, and he had a goofy look on his face. The next had short light brown hair, and was plump. The third was a shorter boy, who had big muscle, but fat around his stomach. The fourth and final was a tall man, who had a goatee and a small mohawk. He wore glasses and looked a little like the second bass.

"Zane, I would like to introduce you to the line." Dale said, walking over to them. He pointed to the first snare, the Italian.

"This is David."

David nodded towards me. "Nice to meet you dude."

Dale pointed at the next one, the boy with the goatee. "This is Richie."

"Sup?" Was all he said, and I nodded.

"This is Catie." Pointing to the girl. She smiled warmly at me.

"How are you hun?"

He then pointed down the bass line. "This is Matt, TJ, Storm, and Woody."

The three basses waved, Matt being estaic. "Nice to meet you bud!"

"You and Storm are the only freshmen, but Storm's been to our practices. I'm sure Tyler sent you the music?" Dale asked.

Tyler was the Battery Caption Head who met my mother a couple of weeks ago. He was a fat man, who wore glasses and had a ten year old's hair cut. He was nice.

"Yea, I did. Alot of warm ups.." I said, pulling my binder of music out of my book bag. Dale nodded, and brought me over to the final closet in the middle of the red band room. I then studied it. It had many trophies, and pictures of previous years.

He opened the door, and there were many weird object on the top shelf. The middle shelf a black case, and on the floor below that was a black case. Two harnesses were on the shelves. Dale handed me one and I put it on the ground. He pointed at the one in the middle. "That's yours."

I pulled mine out. It was so heavy, and I opened the case. The real quads laid there. They had a black shell, their heads were perfectly clear other than the spock drum. The heads were Evans heads, a amazing brand. The stick bag was empty. I picked up the harnesses, putting it on, and I picked up the quints. They were so heavy, making me stumble. Dale caught me, and laughed, as did the rest of the line.

"You'll get use to these." He said, putting them on. I held the quints up against my chest, the weight not affecting me yet. Dale pointed me to a certain spot, and I walked over there. I got out my sticks, a pair of Vic Firth tenor sticks, while Dale got out a different pair. I've never seen them, and Dale noticed my curiousty as he walked over. He seemed use to the weight.

"These are the Vic Firth Tom Augunst Hybrid tenor sticks. Here." Dale gave me a pair, and I dropped my sticks in the bag. I took them and nodded thanks.

"So, are we gonna get started?" David ask, tapping his foot impatiently. Dale nodded, and looked at Richie.

"Legatos!" Richie said, tapping off.

Legatos was a simple exercise, and I prepared myself. We played, and I began playing. Dale was looking at me the whole time, not even watching himself, since he knew this exercise. When we kept speeding up, I noticed Dale was paying more attention. When we ended the exercise, Dale stopped everyone.

"You play the same as me, but a bit more dirty. You'll get the hang of it." Dale said, as he looked at Richie. "Do Sporks."

Richie nodded and tapped off again. We began the exercise, my eyes started to move towards my hands, but Dale hit the rim. "Look straight ahead." He said, and I did. I didn't mess up shockingly, and everyone stopped after it. Dale smirked.

"Well, he's pretty good...look's like we're gonna have a fun year." Dale said, and he patted my back.

"Welcome to our line. Welcome to the Redskin High drumline."

I smiled as everyone started to greet me. It seemed great now that I have a activity to do at school, and maybe it will help me get into a good college. I may even quit after this first year. I don't know. I'll even have some friends before the school year starts!

"So when are we leaving for camp Dale?" Catie asked, while Dale sighed, pulling out his cellphone.

"In about a hour. I say we pack our stuff up now and just get ready to go. I don't feel like warming up right now." Dale said, as he took off his tenor drums with ease. I was pretty shocked by how easy it was for him to take his off. I slowly started to take mine off, hoping that I wouldn't get any attention toward me. Thank God people didn't watch.

"L probably will get pissed, but hey, who cares? We're pretty much the driving force of this damn band." David said, setting his drum down. He then proceeded to take out a cigarette, but Catie slapped him. He jumped and glared at her. "Ow bitch! What the hell was that for?"

"Don't smoke in the band room! L will get pissed!" Catie explained, as David started to snicker.

"Didn't stop YOU from having-" Everyone other than me started to see where he was going, and Catie jumped him. She started to beat on him while everyone laughed, even Dale. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit as well.

"Ow you bitch!!" David finally pushed her off as we continued to laugh. Dale noticed me laughing, and he patted my shoulder. I looked up towards him.

"You're gonna love these people. You'll end up thinking of them as family." Dale said, and I just nodded. Dale chuckled as he patted my head, much to my annoyance.

"These years you'll cherish forever, trust me, it's a great experience. You'll remember every moment. Trust me, cherish these moments, these years go quick." I blinked in confusion as Dale picked up his tenors and mine, carrying them to the cases.

Little did I know that these next four years will change my life like Dale said, and that this will become my life.


	2. Band Camp Begins

"Shit." Dale said, as he sat in the seat beside me. I was riding on bus one, the bus that most upperclassmen rode on. The only reason I was, well, mainly because of David and Dale. We were on the buses, heading to Miller's Mill, where we will be holding band camp. Room assignments have already been called. I didn't know who I was with yet.

"What's going on?" I asked. I had to stop being shy around him so I could get use to having him as my teacher. Dale sighed deeply as he rubbed his head.

"My fucking ex...Jamie." He muttered, as he pointed towards the front of the bus. I looked over to see a extremely gorgeous girl with long blonde hair, smiling as she sat beside a lanky brown hair boy, who was wearing a green t-shirt that said: "Cavaliers".

"What about her?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the beautiful girl. Dale noticed how attentive I was on studying her, and smirked a bit, pulling me back down in my seat.

"She broke up with me last season, after it. I was heartbroken, and now she's openly flirting with Alex, my best friend." Dale explained, looking down a bit. He then shook his head. "By the way," He immediately changed the subject. "You're gonna have to hold a tradition up."

"What would that be?" I asked, and Dale patted my head.

"Being a hot tenor player for the ladies. We tenor players...well, most of us, are known for being extremely good to the ladies. I was voted most dateable freshman my freshman year." Dale had a arrogant smile on his face, and something told me that was gonna be the worst thing with him.

"Most dateable freshman? What the hell?" I asked, a bit confused.

"It's something every girl in this band does. Even the freshman, they get in a group at band camp and vote on which freshman it is. The guard also have something called the 'List'. They put the names of the hottest guys in band on their white t-shirts one week in band camp." Dale explained, suddenly, a very attractive girl came out of no where, smiling. She had long brown hair, black framed glasses, and a very white smile. She was wearing shorts and a white t-shirt.

"Mmhm, and Dale is gonna make the list again this year...and I think this cutie is going to as well." She said, smiling sweetly at me. Dale smirked, giving me a nudge.

"This is Zane, he's my tenor amigo. Zane, this is Cassie. She's a sophomore in the guard." I muttered a hello to her, and her smile widened.

"Awwwwww we got a little cute shy tenor player! That's what we always wanted!" She exclaimed, and I felt extremely embarrassed, looking down, my hair covering my face. "But then again...David is probably going to corrupt him. Like he corrupted every cute guy there is."

David overheard this, and turned around, smiling. "Whatever bitch, if we let you have him you'd probably make him another one of your slaves by offering a little something something in return for a good time, which you'd never give him."

"I'm not a WHORE David!!" Cassie said, kicking at him, when David snorted.

"I never called you a whore, I just called you a seducing bitch."

Dale and I laughed, as Cassie started attacking David. After awhile, Dale pulled out a binder, which I could tell was the sheet music. He handed it to me, and asked: "Can you read?" I nodded, and he pulled out a pair of sticks. He gave them to me. They were a strange kind of stick, I never seen it before.

"Those are Ralph Hardimon sticks. These sticks were given to me by my tenor teacher and my older tenor amigo, Sean Miller. The greatest tenor player in this state. He marched in Santa Clara Vanguard, a drum corp known for it's drumline and he got these." Dale said, letting me study them. There were a list of names on the sticks, written in tiny black letters. "Those are names of former tenor players at this school. These sticks has been around for about fiveteen years, never broken. They can only be used at your final show, your final year."

He then swiped them from my hands, smirking. "This year is my last. And I get to play my last show with these."

"Thats awesome. What's Santa Clara Vanguard again?" I asked, confused. Dale blinked, then took out his Ipod, and he put one earphone in my ear. He then started a song, which was horns blowing. I jumped at the loudness, and the sudden chord hit by the brass.

"This is the Santa Clara Vanguard. The show is called Phantom of the Opera."

I was indulged into the noise of drums playing, brass playing loud chords, and it sent shivers up my spine. Dale noticed my love for the sound, but he removed the earphones from me. He smirked as I looked at him in confusion.

"Tyler will show you the actual show once we meet him at band camp. Tyler marched in Phantom Reginment the same year as this show. Pretty much all our instructors were in a drum corp before."

"Really?"

"Yep. Tyler, our battery caption head, marched Blue Devils from 1985-1989. He was center snare those years, he is a beast at the snare drum. Our bass tech, Art Ellison, marched with Glassmen, a drum corp in Ohio. He mostly played third bass, then switched to second during his last two seasons. Our snare tech, Stewart Youngblood, marched with the Cavaliers from 2003-2005. He was on the inside, but still, that's a pretty good spot." Dale explained, while I still a tad confused on who these corps were.

"You'll hear more about drum corps when you come to band camp. Tyler will explain it to you and Storm. Storm knows only one drum corp called the Blue Devils, but the only reason why is because I'm going out for them." Dale said, laying back in his seat.

"Why not the Santa Clara Vanguard?" I asked, and Dale shrugged.

"The Santa Clara Vanguard isn't for me. I'm sure I could make it, but they haven't been doing well these last couple of years. Though, Ballet for Martha's drum break is amazing."

"Yea, I'm going for Phantom Regiment." David said, overhearing our conversation. "I know Alex is going for Cavaies."

"Blue Devils all the way..." Dale said, and I smirked.

"I'd love to go for one, after high school, it sounds fun." I said, smiling as Dale shrugged.

"Maybe. You are the third tenor player in a while to be able to march them for all four years, that is, if you stay. Hell maybe you can go to a corp in the middle of it. You are a pretty good drummer already." Dale explained, smiling as he patted my head. "We just gotta cut this mess off." He rubbed my hair, messing it up as I glared at him.

"Zane!" I looked up to see Cassie, smiling as she handed me her phone. "Put your number in!" I blinked, but did it anyway, as Dale shook his head. I could tell he was thinking that I fell under her spell. I really didn't, I just was being a kind person.

Hours later, we arrived at our destination, the Miller's Mill. It was a pretty big camp, and I was one of the freshmen that was shocked by it. The field was so clean and well-kept, while there were various housing places on the camp. Dale smiled as he pointed to the big one in the back.

"That's where we are staying. You, David, Richie, Storm, Woody, and me. We're gonna have some fun." He explained, while I looked at him with a confused look.

"How do you know we are gonna be in the same room?" I asked.

"David, Woody, and I signed you guys up. We like ya."

* * *

We got off the buses, being informed by L that our luggage and equipment was being taken care of by the band parents. "Now, we have to go over a couple of rules before you all are dismissed to go to your instructors."

L looked at us, and held up his hand, I then realized that one of his fingers were a nub. I didn't ask any questions. He held up his nubby finger.

"Number one. NO. PURPLING. Especially between the Guard and the Drumline. Mostly, from the tenor players."

Everyone looked at Dale and I, Dale having a smirk on his face. I just blinked, pretty confused about what was going on. Then the memory of Dale explaining to me how tenor players were known for being well with the ladies.

"Number Two, Seniors, treat the others as they would treat you. Sure, you get more privileges, but that will not tolerate any hostile attitude or abuse of power." The seniors groaned at this, Dale didn't say a word.

"Number Three, section leaders, keep your section under your control, and thats right, I'm talking to you, Dale." Everyone looked at Dale again, who just had his arms crossed. "I really, really, do not want to do what had to be done your sophomore year."

Dale's eyes widened at that comment, and he nodded quickly. The other seniors and juniors on our line quickly nodded too. I didn't understand what happened, again, I didn't ask questions.

"Number Four. Do not play on each others equipment. Especially, on the drums. We all know how protective of them they are, especially the snares." All the snares nodded, especially, Richie, who, I saw, had a picture of his snare on his phone.

"Number Five, the big one. Have fun. Feel the music as you play, and remember. We are the Redskin band....now....ONE TWO THREE!" He yelled the numbers out so loud, then a response from the band, except me, came out.

"REDSKIN PRIDE!"

"Winds and Brass, go to the lunchroom, Pit go to the auditorium. Battery, go to the tree. Dismissed." L said, as the groups of people ran to their sections. I sat there, blinking, curious about how this 'Redskin Pride' thing.

"Zane, stop standing there."

I quickly turned around to see Richie and Dale, who both were waiting for me. I quickly caught up to them, and we began to walk to this huge tree.

Once we arrived, a stubby man was sitting there with sticks, pacing. He had short, spikey black hair, and a pair of glasses with a devil's goatee. He had this intense look on his face, and he was a tad overweight. He wore a shirt with a tornado on it, saying: "Whirlwind Festival 2004", and a pair of basketball shorts with sandals. Near him, in our arc, was our drums. He stopped when he saw us, and he looked, pretty pissed.

"Where, the hell, have you all been? I've been waiting here for ten minutes." He said, and Dale shrugged.

"L held us back. Giving us the normal rules and such." Dale explained, and the man sighed deeply.

"I see, can't just do it after I see my line. Ahh, Storm, nice to see you back. Thought I ran you away." He said, and Storm laughed.

"No way Tyler, this is what I love to do." He said, smiling as he stood near his drum.

So that's Tyler. I thought, as I looked at the man. He seemed, nice, but really strict. Tyler then looked over at me.

"So you must be Zane..." He said, and I nodded quickly. He then studied me with full attention, and then smirked.

"You seem to have the capabilities of a drummer..." He said, smiling, then he looked at the line.

"Get your drums on, now. We are going to warm up! Eights, quickly now!" We all ran to our drums, and put them on. I had help from Dale, who laughed as I attempted to put them on. When we were ready and set, Tyler looked at Richie, who tapped us off.

We went straight through the exercise, luckily, none of us screwing up, especially Dale and I. Tyler was watching me, making sure that I didn't screw up under pressure.

After the exercise was done, Tyler kept his eyes on my hands. "Flow-Diddles."

We began the paradiddle exercise, I went through it ok, I wasn't very good at paradiddles. Dale was a beast, barely even trying. After it was done, Tyler kept watching my hands.

"Higga-Digga Bird."

We began our roll exercise, and I played. Tyler watched my hands, then looked up, then his eyes widened a little. Probably cause this whole time, I kept my eyes on him. After it was done, Tyler stopped us, making us go in set.

"Zane I gotta tell you, you learn really quick. Your paradiddles are a bit off, your pinky comes off during rolling, but I can tell, you're going to be one HELL of a tenor player."

"He's got what it takes." Dale said, smirking. "Hell, he'll deff beat Storm out for center next year."

I then looked over to see Storm, who just looked at me, then looked away. I was confused, but didn't ask any questions, as I usually wouldn't.

"Well guys, we seem to have a amazing line. We are deff going to run 2-3-4 this year."

"Yea, but Codes is a gay show to do." Catie said, and David shrugged.

"Sounds pretty cool...do you have a good feature written?"

That question made Tyler smile, and he pulled out a bunch of sheet music, handing it to each one of us. When Dale and I got ours, it said the title on the top.

_**EUREKA! Codes percussion feature.**_

_**Written: Ludwig Van Beethoven**_

_**Arranged and Drumline Parts written by: Tyler Martin**_

"Beethoven? What the hell Tyler?" Woody asked, just blinking.

"The show itself incorporates Beethoven, but it left out Fur Elise, which is what the Pit will be playing...at 180."

"What the HELL?! 180? Highest drum feature tempo we ever did was 165!" Dale said, pretty shocked.

"Yea, but you all will enjoy this feature, since it's a major difference from our former ones." Tyler explained, smiling as he pointed to the music.

"Snares, you will have a part after measure 144, which, originally was a big roll from the snares and tenors to singular solos for all of you, where you all run up to a tom rack with three toms where you beat on and play the part with the snare." Tyler explained, and I looked at the music.

"So thats why it's blank?" I asked, and Tyler nodded.

"Yea, you and Dale will have the choice of writing the solos or having Sean and Danny writing them." Tyler explained, and Dale jumped up.

"Oh shit, Sean and Danny are coming?!" He said, and Tyler nodded. "They will be your instructors and tenor techs. I'm sure they both can help Zane here to get along."

"Who's Danny?"

"The best damn tenor player in the Tri-State and the east coast. He marched Santa Clara with Sean as the center." Dale explained, and I was pretty surprised.

"Yea it took me awhile to get him and Sean convinced, but when he heard that instead of one tenor player like last year that you are getting a new flesh and blood they are both interested." Tyler said, and smirked. "Who knows, maybe he'll be as good as you and Sean."

Dale made a arrogant smirk. "Sure, and pigs will fly."

I was slightly hurt by that statement, but I didn't let it get to me. I just had to prove him wrong.

"Anyway," Tyler began, pointing at the clock. "all the others will be here tomorrow. Right now, for the next two hours while L and his little precious band gets time to warm up and eat, you all get to work. Two hours, learning up to measure 102 and learning the drill." Tyler explained, and we all moaned, except me. I just kinda stood there.

"Don't start. Now, get in set, and look at your music." He gave us all stands which were behind him, and we set our music there. "180, tap off Richie."

Richie tapped, and we all began to read our music and play. I was unaware that the beginning of a tough day was about to start.


	3. Freshmen!

"Stay in step....stay in STEP!!!" Tyler yelled out as we marched along on the field outside the band hall. The drumline was playing their parts in the feature, marching along with it as we sweat. I never have been pushed like this before. I was sweating, my back aching, but I continued to play along with Dale as we crab stepped all the way to the 20 yard line from the 50.

Obviously, Tyler was not yelling at Dale and I. He was quite impressed with us, since we both knew our parts and could stay in step. Mostly with me, because I was new and could already do most of the things others couldn't do. He was yelling at Storm, who was playing amazing but always got out of step.

"Ok, stop, stop. FUCKING STOP!" Tyler yelled, throwing his sticks to the ground. I could tell Tyler was one hell of a angry person. We all stopped, Dale and I stopping a few feet away from them. We quickly removed our quads, sitting them on the ground.

Tyler was glaring at the bass drums, as the flat drums sat on the ground. I took a huge swish of water from my water bottle I had in my stick bag, Dale doing the same. Tyler started to belittle the bass drums as Dale grinned.

"To think that I'm actually gonna miss that guy." Dale said, as he laid back on the ground. I looked at Dale.

"He seems pretty nice." I said, laughing a little as I took another drink of water. I noticed Storm's face, which was filled with anger. He had the look of:

_He doesn't know how hard it is._

Dale noticed too, and sighed. "I use to be like Storm, but once you see Tyler actually play, you'd be amazed."

"You told me he went to college for seven years just to play drums." I said, and Dale shook his head.

"He marched bass drum his first two years in high school, then switched to snare. He made center snare his senior year. He marched with the Bluecoats in between his sophomore and junior year. From his junior year until he reached the age out age, he marched with the Blue Devils for three years, being center snare for two. That's a pretty big accomplishment, if you ask me."

"Oh yea, he did do drum corp didn't he?"

"Yep..1985 to 1989. He's really talented with drums, it's a good thing he's our instructor. The only people he really can't fully attack is us. Mainly cause he's never played quints." Dale explained, taking a drink of his water.

"I can't believe he did that....did they win?"

"Eh, sometimes. He was disappointed in his age-out year mainly cause Santa Clara OWNED them in the World Championship. They earned the highest score in DCI history till Cavies took it in 2002." Dale explained, taking another drink of his water.

"I see. What about L? Did he march corp at all?" Dale smiled at that, a douchebag smile, but nodded.

"Yea. He marched with the Cadets around the same time Tyler marched with the Blue Devils. He became the Brass Caption head before he came here." He explained, and took another drink of his water bottle.

"Why is he so hostile against us though?" I asked, taking a drink of my water, and Dale laughed.

"Mainly cause we get all the attention away from the brass. You go to a band competition, ask a average Joe why they are there, and they'll say, 'for the drums of course!', you never hear anything about the brass unless the person has played a brass instrument or a woodwind. Atleast, thats what we know. You see Zane, we are the pulse of the band. The beat, we keep them alive. Without us, they wouldn't know what to do."

I was pretty shocked to see how important the drumline was to the band, especially to hear we were the pulse. In 8th grade, first year I joined, everyone said the drums were looked down upon, that no one liked them cause they sucked.

"What about that nub of his?"

Dale sat there and took a drink of his water, emptying the bottle. He then shrugged.

"No one knows, only the seniors he trust most do. They all graduated. He hates us, remember?" He said, and threw the bottle across the ground, and I then remembered what L brought up, and I decided to ask the simple question.

"What happened your sophomore year?"

"Nothing you need to know at the moment. Maybe some other time." He quickly answered, not even glancing at me. I, however, decided not to go on with my questioning, I didn't want to make Dale mad at me.

"Quints, get the hell up off the ground!" Tyler yelled at us, and I sighed deeply as I stood up. Today is going to be a long day.

* * *

"So..."

Dale, Richie, David, and I were sitting at a four person table in the cafeteria. It was dinner time, and the band was all conversating while the four of us sat there in silence.

You see, the three of them had a bet. They would see who could hold their breath the longest, then whoever holds it the longest gets to choose what my first stage of freshmen inclusion in the drumline.

There are three basic stages for being included in the drumline for a freshman, which, in this line, doesn't happen very often. Here is how it goes.

1. Embarrass the freshmen

2. Beat the freshmen

3 Test the freshmen

I never expected what kind of things they were gonna do. I was just sitting there, watching in utter silence. I then shrugged, got up, and started to walk away. The three didn't seem to mind, since they were to focused on beating each other.

I sighed deeply as I walked out of the bustling room to see a bunch of other freshmen outside. I blinked as they all stared at me. Some glaring, others just looking.

"Uh, hi guys." I said, waving a little bit, while some of them scoffed.

"So just because you are the newest quint player, you think you can talk down to us?" said a skinny boy with light brown hair, freckles on his face.

"What the hell? I never said anything descending. I just said hi. If you want to be a prick then screw you then." I said, defending myself from the strange outburst.

The boy came up and got up in my face, and I just sat there, staring at him. "You wanna say that to my face?" He asked, and I just blinked.

"What the hell is your problem?"

"Jason, back off." I heard a voice say, and I looked over to see a girl with long, curly brown hair, and holding a clarinet. She had emerald green eyes, and had a angry look on her face. The boy, Jason, just kept staring at me.

"No, this kid is such a dick! I'm not-"

"Jason, you're only doing this because you're jealous." The curly hair girl said, and I just looked at her.

"Jealous of what?" I said, walking past Jason, who just turned and glared at me behind my back, I could feel it. I just ignored him.

"How you're so popular with the seniors already." The girl said, smiling a bit. "All our section leaders did after rehearsing was ask about you."

"Why? I'm not that special." I said, pretty confused.

"You got that right..." Jason muttered. I heard him, as did most of the other freshmen. There were a solid fifteen of us. Not a huge freshmen class.

"I don't know, Langely said he heard you play and that you are good. We don't know, we haven't seen you yet." The girl said, but then gasped. "Oh I'm sorry, I'm being so rude. My name is Raquel, I'm a freshmen clarinet. Nice to meet you!" She said, smiling, and I smiled back.

"Nice to meet you."

"Now, let me introduce you to our group!" I sighed, hoping she didn't mean the whole freshmen group, but a group of people stepped out from the others, while the other freshmen returned to their business. "That jerk right there is Jason, freshmen trumpet player." Jason just scoffed, crossing his arms.

"Thats Brittany, she's really cool! She's a really good trumpet player." Brittany smiled at me and waved. She had long, straightened blonde hair, and a wonderful smile.

"That's Rose, she's our little flute and her partner in crime Nil!" Rose was a small girl, tan, and had the prettiest light green eyes. She smiled at me, saying hello. Nil was a tad bigger, and had short black hair, she waved.

"That's Anna, she's in the pit section." I looked at the dirty blonde, tan girl wearing shorts. She had big, brown eyes, and her body was slender. She was cute, and she winked at me. I just blushed.

"That's Jessica, she's a clarinet, like me!" A short, plump girl with long curly hair waved at me, and I smiled.

"That's Alex, our tenor sax! He's really cool." A boy with short brown hair smiled at me, holding his hand out. I took it and shook it. He had freckles all over his face, and big lips.

"Nice to meet you dude!" Alex said, and I nodded back.

"So that's our group. Oh and Storm would be with us but he's hanging with TJ. He got held back with us so he's not really close to us when he's around TJ." Raquel explained, and I was pretty surprised.

"He was held back?"

"Yea, and if I recalled, before he got held back he went for quints with Dale. But Dale didn't like his playing and plus Storm got held back." Raquel explained, and she sighed. "He wouldn't stop whining about it."

Jason laughed a little bit. "Yea, and now you got them. Mr. Perfect."

"Jason, dude, just, shut the hell up." Alex said, and crossed his arms. "Zane is only being talked about cause no one met him before hand, you need to calm down."

"So why are you guys out here? Shouldn't you be hanging out in there?" I asked, and Raquel laughed.

"No, because we'll be attacked. I thought you came out of here because of that?" She asked, and I shook my head.

"Nah, I came out because Dale, Richie, and David are being stupid." I said, and that made Brittany gasp.

"You're hanging out with them?"

"Yea, whats the big deal?" I asked, and Rose just stared at me in shock.

"They are the three coolest guys in band, with Langely and Nick coming in afterwards."

"Oh. There just guys to me." I said, and Raquel shook her head.

"Let's stop talking about that! Let's talk about something else, something-"

She was cut off when the door open, David came out, smiling evilly and holding a snare stick. "So, I won. And I decided to skip step one and go to step two. So I'll give you five seconds."

I gulped and started to run quickly, and David chased after me. You see, the snare stick we had is a Vic Firth Corpsmaster, and its huge. Alot bigger than a normal stick, and it would be hurt to be beaten with it.

All the other freshmen were yelling for me, telling me to go faster. Of course, I easily out ran David, and I smiled at victory, however, was caught by Dale, who hold me back.

"Come on now, we only have to do this once! We all have to go through it, accept it!' Dale said, laughing, while I struggled to get free from his grip. However, it was useless, and David walked up, breathing heavily.

"All...that...running is gonna...cost....you extra...." David said, smacking the stick in his hand. I let out a yell.

David swung the stick.

* * *

"Ow. OW!" I yelled out as Raquel picked the splinter out of my arm, and she sighed.

"You atleast took it, didn't scream once. I'm impressed. We all are." Raquel said, smiling at me, trying to make the situation better. I laughed a little.

"Thanks for trying, but I'm still pissed." I said, laughing a while Raquel laughed along with me. She was such a kind person, and I was shocked to find she was my first friend outside of drumline in this band. She smiled at me, her very sweet smile.

"So are you all working on the drum feature?" Raquel asked, and I nodded.

"Yea, it's a pretty rough feature. I can't really release details, but it's gonna be pretty cool to perform it for you guys." I said, and her smile widened.

"Yea, we get to hear you guys play with us tomorrow! Have you guys learned the opener? We are setting it tomorrow and playing it standing still." She said, and I shook my head.

"Tyler has mainly got us looking at the feature. Because in difficultly, it's worse than the opener. What about you guys?"

"We got up to measure 52, then stopped because he wanted to talk to us about the importance of our role in the band. He says you guys are really full of yourselves, but I don't see that in you." She said, and I laughed.

"Yea, I can see Dale thinking he's better than everyone."

"Hey, Zane!" Raquel and I looked up to see Storm, who was running towards us. He stopped, and he crossed his arms. "We were wondering where you were, it's almost curfew. Dale says that we get the bottom bunks."

"Bottom bunks?"

"Yea, we get bunk beds. Dale already picked it out for us. We need to get going." I nodded, and I looked at Raquel, smiling.

"Thank you for helping me." Raquel just nodded, smiling, but then quickly grabbed her phone and gave it to me.

"Put your number in, I'll text you mine." She said, and I did so. I then handed it to her, and she smiled.

"Thank you, I'll see you tomorrow! Bye Zane!"

"Bye Raquel."

She smiled at me and ran off, while Storm and I stood there. He then looked at me, shook his head, and walked off. "What?" I asked, following him, and he laughed.

"Nothing, just picking at ya. We've never been introduced, have we? Name's Storm, Storm Green, nice to meet you Zane." He said, and I nodded a greeting to him.

"Nice meeting you too."

"So how long have you been playing drums?" He asked, and I sighed.

"A year."

"Oh, I've been playing for about eight. I'm a trap set player, see? I love set, it's the best. I joined drumline cause....of drums." He said, laughing his strange loud 'ha ha ha', while I laughed along with him.

"That's cool dude. I play guitar and drums, I'm really enjoying playing quints, though." I said, and he nodded.

"Yea man, I love bass. It's the shit. By the way, if you hear this crap about me hating you for play quints, I don't. I don't want to put up with Dale's shit, anyway. He's a real asshole, so is all the other seniors. You'll learn that, soon enough."

I just blinked as we walked to a dorm out in the middle of the woods. We walked past various trees, and I looked at Storm.

"Why are we going out here?"

"This is the famous drumline dorm room. Only five drummers can be picked from there. We're lucky to be there."

We kept walking until we reached a big building. The door was white, a very bright white. All the other doors were completely green. But this door, it was odd. The door was close, but had one of those, what do you call them, sliding eye things? I didn't know. When we got up to the white door, and Storm knocked, and a pair of eyes popped out. It was David.

"What's the password?" He asked in a creepy, throaty voice.

"You never told me there was a password!!!" Storm yelled, banging on the door.

"Ah, little freshmen, there is always a password for this door, come now, take a guess..." He repeated, and Storm just sighed.

"Taco?"

"Why the FUCK would it be taco?" David asked in his normal voice.

"I don't know!!!" Storm yelled, and then David slammed open the door, hitting Storm in the face. I just sat there and watched, chuckling a bit, as Storm glared at David.

"Fuck you!"

"No, fuck you!!"

"Both of you, shut up." Richie said, walking out. He then saw me. "Hey Zane," he looked down on the ground to see Storm holding his now bloody nose. "hey Storm."

"Hey Storm? I have a bloody nose asshole!"

"Storm! Shut up!" I heard Dale yell, and I shrugged, helping Storm up. David let use through, and we walked into the dorm.

It had four bunk beds, one bed pressed up against the wall at the end of the room. It said: "Zane's bed." And the one on the far left of the room said: "Storm's bed."

"So, Zane, have a crush on Raquel?" David asked, laying on his bed, bringing out a Maxim magazine, as I walked over to my bed, checking for my clothes.

"No, we just met today. She's a nice girl." I said, and Richie laughed.

"Yea, to Christian for me though. Can't tap that." Richie said, laughing, as Dale just shrugged.

"Who knows, preacher's daughters are usually the easiest." Dale said, and David held up his finger.

"Song leader." He corrected, and Dale just looked at him while David didn't take his eye off his magazine.

"What?"

"He's a song leader. Not a preacher."

"Same difference." Dale said, while David snickered.

"A preacher preaches. A song leader singes." He said, trying to make a rhyming joke, while Dale just threw a random magazine at the snare, who's magazine was hit out of his hand.

"Asshole I was looking at friken Heidi Klum!!"

"Anyway, how was your first day guys? Zane seemed to have made alot of friends, seeing all those freshmen stalk him." Richie said, smirking, while I just shrugged.

"I guess. One got all up in my face though." I said, unpacking my stuff, while the four others just laid back.

"Who?" Dale asked, and I shrugged.

"Some trumpet player named Jason."

"Oh, that little prick. He's so disrespectful." Richie said, and Dale nodded in agreement.

"Yea, he thinks hes the shit for playing a solo at middle school Ratings. Sounded like complete shit to me." Dale said, and I shrugged.

"Who cares. I just ignore him."

All of a sudden, the door opened, and Tyler walked in.

"Ladies, you all should be getting some shut eye! You realize you wake up at 5 am?"

"Yea Tyler, we know." Dale said, and Tyler laughed.

"Good! Zane, Storm, you two are doing good. Keep it up. Talk to you all tomorrow! I have to go write." He said, walking out, while Dale sighed, getting up as soon as the door closed.

I laid in my bed as Dale turned off the lights. "Now we have a tradition. Weird, but heres how it goes. You have to do it." Dale said, the two of us freshmen listened. "Whoever name gets said last, you have to say night to the others. I'll begin."

"Night Zane, Richie, David, and Storm." Dale said, yawning as he got into his bunk.

"Night Dale, Zane, David, and Richie." Storm said, then I heard him ruffle around, probably to get in a more comfortable position. These bunks weren't that comfortable. Better than the floor, I guess.

"Night Dale, David, Storm, and Zane." Richie said, and I sighed.

"Good night Dale, Richie, Storm, and David."

Silence.

"David?"

Still silence.

"David why the hell won't you say good night?" Dale asked, and all of a sudden we heard David yell.

"Dammit can't a guy masterbate in peace!?!"

"DUDE!" We all yelled, then adding numerous insults to him, while David laughed.

"Jeez I was joking. Night dudes!"

We all sighed, and I laid back, staring at the darkness. First day went by pretty well...hopefully tomorrow will be alot better.

_Then again, I have been wrong before._


	4. Work Day 1

I yawned as I walked out of the room. The sun wasn't even risen yet as the five of us walked through the woods. None of us were fully awake, David was still muttering to himself from some dream he had, and Richie wasn't even walking straight. Storm was walking slowly, while Dale was rubbing his eyes the whole way.

"So remind me," Richie began. "why the HELL do we have to get up this early?"

"Conditioning.." Dale muttered as we made it to the field, where the rest of the drummers, and four people were waiting, all four were men.

One of them had short black hair, and a tan complexion, wearing a green jacket with the big white letters MU. The second had a bald head, glasses, and a goatee, wearing a Glassmen t-shirt, with khakis. The third had long brown hair, was a little chubby, and wore a nice button up shirt with a white one underneath, and khakis. The fourth and final one had long brown hair, kinda wavy, with a American Eagle shirt on and tight jeans.

"Dale how many times do I need to tell you? Don't be late." said the chubby one, while Dale laughed a bit.

"Whatever Sean, you know I don't follow rules."

"And to think that guy got section leader.." said the tan one.

"Well Stewart, he can be a good leader when he wants to be." Sean said, laughing a bit, while the guy standing next to Sean kept staring at me. I didn't understand why, but I just yawned.

"So..." Sean said, looking at the line. The fourth guy kept staring at me, it was pretty weird. I didn't say a word though, I don't like to complain.

"Art, take the basses and show them their warm ups. Stewart, take the snares. Danny and I will work with the quints. Well, one of them." Sean said, while Dale blinked.

"What?"

"Tyler wants to work with you. He wants you to meet him at his car." Sean said, pointing a strange direction, while Dale sighed, and started to jog there. Great, I was left alone with two guys I didn't know.

Sean looked at me and beckoned me over to him, I just walked over towards him without really doing anything.

"So you're the new quint player? Zane right?" I nodded, and Sean smiled. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sean, and this is Danny, we will be personally teaching you."

"Nice to meet you dude." Danny said, holding out his hand. I shook it, and I put my hand back down.

"So why aren't you teaching Dale too?" The two quickly looked at each other, then looked back at me.

"That's...not really important. Anyway, we are going to begin with a simple exercise...running!" Sean said, a big smile on his face, which made me just blink.

"Why running?"

"Quints are by far one of the heaviest instruments in the band, and the heaviest in the battery. You don't hold them, you wear them, and if your not strong enough, you can't put up with them. So, we're going to get you stronger and faster." Danny explained, and I sighed deeply.

"Alright..how long do I have to run?"

"Until 7:30."

"Thats when all the winds get up and have breakfast!" I said, and Danny smiled.

"Exactly, now, get running!"

* * *

Hours later, I was laying on the ground, breathing heavily. My legs felt like jello as the sun was beating down on me. All of a sudden I saw a hand extend out to me, and I reached up. The hand grabbed me and pulled me up, when I was up I saw Dale, who was sweating as well.

"You ok?" Dale asked, and I nodded, he sighed deeply. "Trust me it'll get better, just don't quit on us."

We walked towards the cafeteria and L noticed us as we were walking. He smiled at us, and patted me on the back. "How was your first morning run?"

I was pretty surprised he was speaking to me, and I just smiled back. "Pretty good. Just kinda exhausting."

"Trust me, when you march corp you'll do that alot. Anyway, you should get eating. You need to get some energy." L said, returning to whatever he was doing.

Dale just kinda shook his head as we walked into the cafeteria, where everyone was already eating. I looked over to see Alex waving over towards me, and I walked over to him.

"Hey dude!" Alex said, smiling, and I smiled back. "Come sit with us, I'm sure you want to get away from the line right now...you all looked pretty pissed off."

"I do?"

"Well, not you. I'm talking about the rest of them." Alex said, and I turned around to look at the line. Alex's words were true, everyone on the line was pissed off somehow. The snares had their heads down on the table, while the basses were cussing and bitching about something. Dale, whom I was with a minute ago, was no where in sight.

I didn't know what they had to go through, since all I did was run around the field. I couldn't help but feel guilty that I didn't have to go through anything they did. I'm sure they're training exercises were alot worse.

"Hey!" My thoughts were broken when I saw Raquel run up to me, smiling, but as soon as she was infront of me, her smile disappeared. "You look exhausted!"

"Yea, thats what happens when you run for two hours." I said, laughing a little, and I noticed Jason was behind her. He was giving me a nasty look, as usual, while I just ignored him. I couldn't stand the punk, but I wasn't gonna let him get to me.

"I'm really sorry to hear that...but you don't have to march for another three hours cause we're just going to be practicing the opener!" She said, smiling, while I sighed deeply.

"We haven't even worked on the opener, all we've done is the feature." I muttered, and Alex shrugged.

"Kyle said that you guys always learn the feature first."

"Kyle?" I asked, and Raquel started to giggle.

"He's the senior clarinet. He's really good."

"Yea, so is Alison-"

"Hey Zane," I turned to see Sean, who shocked most of the other freshman. "We're going out and learning the opener. Tyler requested it."

"Seriously?" I sighed, and Sean nodded, shrugging a bit.

"Don't worry, if you guys learn it quickly than you all can come back and rest."

I ran my hand through my hair, making Sean to laugh a bit. "By the way, you are coming with the instructors after it."

"What? Why?"

"You'll see why."

* * *

"Why the HELL are we out here? I should be eating scrambled eggs right now dammit!" Ryan yelled, hitting his drum.

"Because we're going to learn the opener." Danny said, putting the music up for Dale and I to look at.

Minutes went by as we were taught the opener, the beginning was quite simple. The quints and the basses set the tempo, the quints hitting the shells of their drums, while the basses hit the rims. The tempo was not fast, yet not slow, and was set to whatever the drum major saw fit. Afterward, the snares come in, playing on their hoes, making a small dinging sound. After all the snares come in, playing one full measure together, Dale comes in playing a rhythm that counters their hoe playing on the spock drum, and two measures afterward I come in playing the same rhythm. The basses still play on the rims, keeping the tempo.

Finally, the basses come in playing a simple split, and the snares play a little bit. Afterward, Dale and I come in playing paradiddles across all four main drums, which was a little tough for me, but they didn't snap at me for it. We go through the song flowing, the basses playing splits and unisons with complete ease. Finally, we are stopped by Sean, who held his drumstick up in the air.

"Alright...now, we are getting to the solo parts." Sean said, looking at Tyler's folder. Tyler, shockingly, was no where to be in sight. I didn't ask questions, like a good boy. Though, I couldn't help but ask one particular question.

"Why do we have solos in the opener of the show?" I asked, and Danny was playing with his sticks.

"So it's not some boring unison drumline stuff, a little variety."

"Alright, snares, you guys start off with your solo, Woody will keep beat. Woody, play your part." Sean said, and Woody got to playing position.

He played a very simple part, which he continued to play as Stewart went up to Ryan's drum. Over Woody's playing, Stewart played a solo, which surprised me, and afterward, he held his hands in the air, a visual affect.

"That's your solo." I heard him say to the snares, who nodded. I looked over at Dale, who took his drums off and gave it to Sean. I pulled my drums up. Sean cracked his knuckles, and grabbed his sticks. He started to crab step, and played this amazing solo on the tenors. It started up with hertas, then did a herta crossover, hitting the spock drum once, and then he started to do multiple sweeping crossovers, ending with hitting drum one and the spock two times.

"That's your solo quints, do you think you two can do it?" Dale nodded, while I gulped. Woody kept playing the part, and we got in set.

"Alright, lets see how this works out. Ok. When Woody restarts the second time with the same pattern, begin to play your solos. Bass one, two, three, stay set during both solos. After the snare solo, the basses will do a run up the drums, and you all will do a 16th note transition up into the quint solos." Sean said, and we waited. I was sweating from the pure nervousness. I knew I was going to screw up.

The snares began to play their solo, which shockingly, they got with ease, but it sounded dirty. The 16th note transition came, Dale and I played from drum four to drum two to drum one, and I began to play the solo.

I got the hertas down easy, even the crossover part, and then we began to do the sweeping crossovers. At the end of it, my left stick got stuck into a rim and I cussed a little bit, causing Danny to cut us off. I looked down, ashamed of my blunder, but Danny patted my shoulder.

"Not to bad. Just gotta work on that part."

Shockingly, after five run thrus of the solo part, I got it. However, I hit the rims sometimes, but Dale didn't mind. He said it was a natural thing, that I'd get it eventually.

Finally we kept going, and we got to a break down part, where Art described it as: "a break down before we get to the big exciting stuff."

The fourth bass would play a extremely simple half note melody, while the other four would come in playing on their rims. The flat drums would come in in a fugue like manner, each of us playing the same parts but on different beats. I was the last one to be heard, hitting the shell of my drum with my left hand and the right hand going from drum four to drum one to the spock.

After the fugue, we would hit our drums, crescendo in, and played a diddle passage, where we broke into solos again. This time, the basses were not playing a simple melody. The basses played a run during the snare's solo, then Woody would play quarter notes while Dale and I played our simple solo, doing a crossover at the end.

We got to the final part, where we had a measure of rest. Sean cut us off.

"Ok...now I hope you guys know what to do here." Sean said, and Dale quickly did what he was speaking about.

"DUT DUT DUT DUT!" He growled as he yelled the strange words I've never heard before, and Sean nodded.

"Very good. Now, Storm knows what that is, but do you Zane?" I quickly shook my head, kinda surprised by that. It sent, strange chills up my spine.

"Dutting is one of the most important features of being a drummer, it basically keeps the tempo of the movement, but it also makes you all sound badass." Art said, smiling a little bit.

"When we get to that part, it'll only be the pit playing while everyone else has that one measure of rest, then you come back in. Do you all got that?"

We all nodded, and we got in set. Richie counted us off, and we began. I never dutted before, but then suddenly I was stared at after I gritted my teeth.

_"Dut dut dut dut!" _I said, and all of a sudden, Sean cut us all off.

"Holy shit dude."

"What?" I asked, and Dale laughed a little.

"That was badass."

Later on, after completing the opener, Sean told us to go to the field, except me. Art took my drums, while Stewart, Danny, and Sean smiled as I just looked at them.

"What?" I asked, and they beckoned me to follow. We were walking to the teacher's cabin, and as we walked in, I saw Tyler with a woman, who was wearing a simple white dress and had short blonde hair.

"Hey guys! And Zane! Good to have you in here...we have to have a little chat."

"About what?" I asked, and Danny shockingly flicked my hair with his drumstick.

"Getting rid of this."

"Uhh, what?" I asked, and Tyler sighed.

"Trust me, if you marched with that this season you will regret it so much. So, my niece here is a hairdresser. We wanna give you a new look."

"Uhh, well I'm not really in love with my hair...so..." I muttered, and I was picked up by Stewart and Danny, put in a chair, and the young girl walked over to me.

"You'll love this, I promise."

* * *

I sighed deeply as I ran my hand through my new, spikey hair.

My hair was spiked up, and I could fully see now. I didn't look half bad to be honest, and I was walking with Sean back to the field. When we made it, everyone was in a arc, the drumline in the middle. As soon as I made it through the trumpet line, Ryan saw me and started to laugh.

"Oh my they actually did it!" Ryan said, and the whole drumline laughed. I put my head down and grabbed my harness, putting my drums on.

"Screw you guys..." I muttered, though I felt I looked good, I was a little self-conscious.

"Ok...so, drumline, do you have the opener down?" We stopped our immature and looked up at L, who was speaking through a mike. Up on a podium was a girl with long brown hair, and bright green eyes. She was pretty, and was staring at all of us. I was guessing that was the drum major.

"Yea." Dale said, pulling his sticks out of the bag.

I looked around and saw a girl with a trumpet in her hand, just looking at me. She was short, and had blonde hair, looked pretty fit to me. She simply smiled and waved at me. For some odd reason I could feel my face turning red. She seemed, older than I. I simply waved back. I looked over near her and Jason was glaring at me. All of a sudden I felt a drumstick hit my leg, and Dale muttered. "Get set."

I did as told, and waited. The drum major held her hands up. "Set!" She yelled, and we prepared.

She started to set the tempo, and the drums began to play.

I started to play the measure of paradiddles after awhile, the band coming in, chills going up my spine. I was shocked by the epic feel of the band, the sound. The power of the horns, however, I focused, trying not to lose my chops from one moment of weakness. But I had to admit, my knees felt like jello as the trumpets behind me screamed in my ear.

The solos came, I marked time as I waited for my part. Finally, the transition came, and I began to play with Dale as I did not take my eyes off the drum major. I had to admit, it was hard looking away. She was pretty cute. The solo went fairly well, I hit the rims twice but I noticed a pleased look on Sean's face. Tyler was just walking up when he saw, and he smiled a little bit.

The part of the breakdown came up, and we started to do the fugue. Sean came up to us, whispering in each drummer's ear. And at the crescendo, he came up to me and said in my ear.

"You are the only one to dut, understand?."

I was nervous, he could tell, and he laughed. "Don't worry...just get angry." He walked over near L and Tyler, while I sat there contemplating.

How am I suppose to get angry? I had nothing to get angry about. Then suddenly the thought of Jason's unfair treatment towards me appeared in my mind. Of how he angrily treated me like shit while I did nothing to the kid. I gritted my teeth as the snares played as the basses did a run, then we entered the tenor solo. The moment was almost here, as I gritted my teeth harder and harder. I was really starting to show my anger towards the trumpet player, then suddenly, the moment came. I looked directly into the eyes of the drum major, and I growled.

_"Dut dut dut dut!"  
_

I noticed L look at me in shock as we played again, and finally we ended the movement, standing sideways and nodding towards the invisible audience as a "bring it bitch" to the crowd.

We stayed like that for a minute, and the drum major sighed. "Relax."

Everyone sighed and got down on the ground, while the drummers took their drums off. I sighed deeply as I wiped the sweat off my forehead, only to be poked by someone.

"You're that Zane kid right?"

I turned to see the blonde girl just staring at me, smiling. "Uh, yea, that's me." I said, and she held her hand out.

"My name is Helen! Second trumpet! It's nice to meet you!"

The enthusiasm of this girl shocked me, and I just smiled back. "Nice to meet you."

"So I heard you moved here from Virginia. I moved here a year ago, from California. Ha you should see how bad I was before I came here"

"Well it's kinda different. The weather is the same, but there's just that different feel." I explained, rubbing my arm. I was a tad nervous, this girl was pretty cute and she was talking to me? Of all people.

"Yea I know how you feel. Don't worry though! You'll come to love it here! Especially with friends like these!" Helen said, smiling, then was surprised when the drum major ran up to her and hugged her. "Ah! Oh, hey Lisa!"

"Hey Helen! You played really good! I kinda wish I was on the horn line again...and this is Zane, right? Dale told me about you!" Lisa said, smiling at me as she hugged me. I was pretty surprised by the openess of this one.

"Dale told you about me?" I asked, and Lisa nodded while she had her head in my chest.

"Yea, didn't you know? We're cousins!"

I had no idea that Dale had a cousin, let alone the drum major. It was hard to tell, since they looked different, and how Dale was this mysterious badass while Lisa was this very outgoing and open girl. I was a tad bit confused of why she continued to hug me, and Helen noticed, laughing.

"Hey Zane!"

I looked over to see Raquel, who walked over towards us with Alex. She had a huge smile as she looked at Lisa hugging me. "Seems like you met Lisa."

"Ahh my little band runner! How much I missed you!" Lisa jumped from me to her, and I just breathed as Helen patted my back.

"You'll get use to her, she's always like that. It's to bad she's leaving this year-"

"Now don't say that! I am going to come back, so don't say those words! You'll make me cry!" Lisa said, as she buried her head into Raquel's shoulder, who just laughed.

"So, anyway, Zane, you are a good drummer. Not as good as Dale, but pretty good." Helen said, and I smiled a bit.

"Thank you."

"Dale's such a beast!" Alex said. "I saw him play last year as the only tenor player and he was awesome!"

"Yea, he's really good. I'm glad he's on the line with me." I said, pretty shocked how much praise he was getting. Suddenly, I heard a scoff behind me.

"Yea. You'll never amount to that."

Helen didn't even turn around. "Jason, stop, you're just going to get yourself hurt. Seriously."

Jason scoffed again, walking off. I just watched him as he walked back to the camp. Why was this kid so bent on insulting me? I did nothing to him. I shook my head and ignored it.

"Ok guys, lets do it again. Drumline, take a break, you all need one." L said, and all the drummers screamed while the hornline and woodwinds moaned. The four around me went back to their spots as I sat beside Dale near our drums.

I smiled a bit, listening as the horns started to play their part. Today was going to be a good day.


	5. Drum Feature

"Zane, Zane dude wake up."

I opened my eyes to see Storm and TJ, who were just staring as I jumped up from my bed. I rubbed my head as I tried to recollect how I got to my bed. I looked at my cellphone, the time being around sixish, dinner time. I then remembered that we just played the opener, set it, marched it while playing, and that I went back to the dorms to sleep for awhile.

"You were knocked out, are you that much of a heavy sleeper? It took me and Storm about a thousand tries to get you up!" TJ said, while I just shrugged, getting out of my bed.

We then started to walk back to the cafeteria, where the rest of the sixty member band was. I sighed deeply as I rubbed my eyes. TJ laughed.

"Long day? Trust me they'll get alot longer."

"Oh won't that be fun." I said, as we walked outside the cafeteria, but a sound stopped us. It was the sound of a clean hit of drum one on a set of quads. We looked over to see Danny and Sean, who had our tenors on, checking the tuning.

"You guys go ahead, I'll be in there in a minute." I said, while the other two drummers just shrugged and left me. I sat there on the steps watching the two. They started to play random exercises, which were perfectly clean and were pretty awesome to watch honestly. I couldn't help but get lost in their playing.

"They're pretty awesome aren't they?"

I looked up to see Helen, who was holding a water in her hands. She sat down next to me, and sighed as she watched the drummers. "Danny is soooo hot..."

Of course I figured thats what she would say. Honestly, Danny wasn't a bad looking fellow. He probably had the ladies crawling at his feet, but even though I've only talked to him once, he seems like the kind of guy to be a player.

"To bad he's taken though. Good solid year. Oh well, to old for me anyway. Atleast you're single..."

My head snapped as I looked at Helen, who started to laugh at my red, embarrassed face. "W-What?" I asked, while Helen kept laughing at me.

"You fell for that! I'm sorry sweetie but you just aren't my type. You're pretty cute though."

"T-Thanks?"

She kept laughing at my expense, while I just blushed deeply. She then patted my back, while I just kept looking down. "I know someone you should go after though!"

I then looked at her again, this time my blushing going away. I gave her a confused look, while Helen just smiled a little bit. "Well, Raquel of course. Don't give me that look like you didn't know!"

"Huh? Why Raquel?" I asked. I wasn't gonna lie. Raquel was one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen, but I didn't think she had the hots for a guy like me.

"She talks about you constantly. You're like the topic of band camp for some reason. Probably because you're the new kid and you were put on quads and that you got your style changed so suddenly during band camp and you're pretty cute, should I go on?" Helen said, while I just shrugged.

"Still. I'm not that great. Well, thats what that kid says."

"What kid?"

"Jason?"

Helen's face went from a happy one to a pissed off look a second after I said Jason's name. "Him? Just ignore him. He's so full of himself and cocky. He's not as good as he portrays himself to be."

"Why does he attack me though? I don't even play any brass instruments, I'm a drummer."

"It's because you are getting all the attention from us. He just doesn't know how to handle not being the center of attention anymore."

"Zane."

I looked up to see Ritchie, who pointed towards the field.

"We're meeting out there, the rest of the winds already set the ballad so we have to after dinner. Then at nine we're gonna have a full ensemble with the winds and pit, playing the opener again, then marching the ballad while they play."

I nodded, and Ritchie smiled as he walked back into the cafeteria. Helen had already randomly left me, so I was stuck by myself. I sighed as I stood up, walking into the cafeteria after Ritchie, but was shocked when someone grabbed me.

It was a short girl with white, pale skin. She had long wavy brown hair, and she was wearing short orange shorts with a white t-shirt that said "FRESHMAN GUARD". I blinked in confusion as she took me into the middle of the cafeteria, where she turned to me. I just looked at her as she sighed deeply.

"Do not judge me on this, ok? I'm only doing this cause I have to."

I just blinked because I had no idea what she was talking about, and she yelled out. "Hey guys look at me!" The whole group of people turned to look at us and suddenly, she lunged at me. Her lips locked with mine as she kissed me infront of the whole band, staff, and of course, cooks.

I, to say the less, was in pure shock. I had to admit, I enjoyed the kiss from a cute girl, but then again, why the hell was she kissing me in the first place? All of a sudden she broke the kiss off, looked at me, blushed, then ran off.

"Um. Zane."

I looked at Dale, who was smirking, while the other drummers had their heads down, crying because they were laughing so hard. "You just aided that little lady into becoming a full fledged guard member!"

"How did I do that?" I asked, blinking as I sat down near Richie, who was still laughing.

"They basically do the same thing we do, and make the freshmen do stupid stuff." Dale explained, while I sighed deeply.

"Well its whatever...wasn't that bad."

David cracked up. "OH YOU DOG-"

"David, Dale, Zane, Richie! Get your asses outside, NOW!"

Everyone was silenced by that loud roar, we turned to see Tyler, the angry look on his face terrifying most of the cafeteria. We quickly got up and ran outside, not wanting to see Tyler's full rage.

* * *

I groaned as I held the tenors above my head, my arms shaking from the weight. All of the line was holding the drums above their heads, the sweat pouring as Tyler watched, sitting in a chair while sipping iced tea.

Apparently, while no one was aware, Catie went off and started a fight with David while I was asleep. The fight took place out in the parking lot, which Catie ended up trying to beat David with a drumstick, but missed, denting Tyler's SUV.

I wondered why I was paying the price for their idiotic crap? I didn't do anything. When I asked Dale, all he told me was.

"_We're a drumline, when we are together we're not individuals, we're one group. We take punishments together."_

I thought that was the most absurd thing, but I decided to go with it. Dale was in the same amount as pain as I, and was gritting his teeth. The rest of the line was just as bad. Finally, Tyler snapped his fingers.

"Ok, drop em."

So we finally put the drums down, I was sweating more than ever. Tyler sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Catie and David I swear if I ever hear of you two fighting again I'll make you two sleep in the same bed, and don't think Sam won't let me. Understand?"

"Yes sir.." They both muttered, as the two didn't even glance at each other. Richie, who was between the two, was snickering a little.

"So listen up.." Tyler said, as he stood up. "Sean and them left to go get new stuff for you guys..and I know this is sudden, but we are doing something that we have never done before."

"Whats that?" Dale asked, sweating badly.

"Well, tonight, the band is gonna be eating dinner, I'm gonna act like we're outside practicing and working on the drums. While you guys are doing that, I'll tell L to let the winds outside so they can watch you perform the drum feature. We have lights to light up the field, this is just to show that you guys are good enough. Do you think you want to try it? We'll have to work on it for the rest of the time."

We all looked at each other, and Dale had a big smile on his face.

"Hell. Yes."

Tyler smiled as he pointed to the music stands behind us. "Well get to it!"

* * *

Hours went by as we prepared, our solos were written, and everything was ready. Dale and I were waiting for our teachers to arrive to hand us our new stuff for our quads. Dale was tuning his tenors while I just sat there, looking at the solo Danny wrote me. It wasn't so hard, since it was only one measure. It was just a inward scrape on one and two, then a uzi scrape on three and four, then a crossover, ending with a shot on the spock drum. Dale's solo, he wrote himself.

"You ready? Luckily we're not marching it." Dale said, and I nodded, a smile on his face. "Good, I expect you to perform good. If not I'm kicking your ass."

"Ha like your first year? Shall I remind you that you fell during rehearsal and almost murdered Rachel?"

We looked up to see Sean and Danny, walking towards us with new sticks in hand. They were the same kind we use now, just freshly taped and brand new.

"Look that bitch shouldn't of been running on the move, I've told you this many times Sean." Dale said, while Sean just laughed.

"Whatever, haha. So you guys ready?"

"I hope you got that solo down Zane, it's pretty simple." Danny said, as he handed me the sticks. I nodded, then Danny pointed to the drums. I walked over, putting them on, and preparing my sticks. Dale noticed, took his new sticks and tapped me off. I then played the part leading into the solos, which was just paradiddles up the drums. I then hit the third and fourth drum, still marking time as I waited. First was Richie's solo, then Dale's, then David's. I then put my sticks up and started to play, doing the solo actually clean, no rims.

Sean, Danny, and Dale sat there with a happy look on their faces. "Good job, I'm impressed." Danny said, and I just smiled a bit.

"Hey Dale, Zane!" We looked over to see Tyler, who was pointing to the rest of the line. "You guys better get ready."

Dale and I walked over to join the others, placing are drums down, harnesses on. The snares and basses were chatting as we joined in. "So I think we should do this awesome visual at the breakdown.." David said, which got us all to listen in.

"What do you mean?"

"At the part after the rack…the part where we go. Dut dut digga digga dat, dutdut dutdut, we should have a awesome rock out there." Tyler and the rest of the percussion staff was over by the tree talking, while the pit wasn't paying attention. The pit consisted of nine people, the only one I knew was Anna.

David looked over to the staff then the pit. "We gotta do it, don't let them know that we are gonna do that."

"What's a rock out?" I asked, and David laughed.

"It's where ya shake ya ass. You know, groove. We've never had one, always wanted one. Now's the time to, so do it!"

We all agreed, then suddenly Tyler appeared.

"Soloists, whenever you do your solo, step out, alright?" We all nodded, but we smiled to ourselves.

Suddenly, L came out with his thumbs up, then we got ready. The band was walking out, and I could see Raquel with Helen, laughing as they walked out. For some reason, I really wanted to impress her. The rest of the drumline watched as they walked out, Tyler standing infront of us.

"Drumline, drums up!"

We all quickly grabbed our drums and put them on. It was getting easier for me, and I put them down. We stood at set, waiting.

L stopped the band, who just looked at us, then back at L. The whole 18 person percussion section was ready as L held his hand to us.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the percussion section would like to perform a piece for you this evening that they have worked very hard on. The drum feature for this season, enjoy."

The band then circled around, sitting down while some stood up. Richie looked at us, then began to tap off.

The pit began with a very subliminal opening, rolling on a certain key. We began to mark time as Woody and a girl in the pit played a very soft beat on their drums, then started to crescendo in. We began to dut.

Dale and I hit the shell of our drums, the bass drums hitting their rims except for Woody, and the snares playing on their hoes and their drums.

Then Tyler yelled out. "LET IT STING!"

We rolled and went into the drum feature as the pit began to play Fur Elise at 180. The crowd roared as we dut again. Dale and I returned to the same pattern on our shells, the top two basses playing on the rims, the bottom two playing a beat while the snares played something similar to the beginning. We then played a small part then returned to the shells. The bass drums stepped out, and everyone but them cut off. They played a amazing split, ending with a loud unison at the end, making the crowd yell.

The pit played a part, then we played a couple of flams, then the pit played again, the basses playing a simple run as we played on our shots. The method was call/respond, which I enjoyed greatly. Finally they played again, the snares playing a flam drag with a shot at the end, then Dale and I came in with a simple diddle crossover.

The pit and the drumline came together again, the pit rolled as the whole drumline played a simple paradidle passage, at the end, all the flat drums flipped the sticks and caught them. Dale and I hit a shot on drum one, then the pit began to play the melody again, as we joined back in with the clicks on the shells.

Finally a different part was coming as we played a simple crescendo part, but it got complex, the snares and the tenors began a call/response of their own, the snares playing just a single hit as we played diddles. We then did paradiddle-diddles up the drums, and hit a shot, then went into the solos, the pit playing a piano level transition.

Richie stepped out, playing a pretty intense snare solo, which I couldn't tell the rudiments since I was so focused on mine. When he stepped back, Dale stepped out, playing two grandmas, ending on both three and four, stepping back. Ryan stepped out, playing a mainly flams with diddles thrown in, ending with a invert cheese.

Finally, I stepped out, playing my scrape solo perfectly clean, ending with a shot, stepping back. I noticed Raquel's eyes were on me, and I couldn't help but feel good. Catie then stepped out, playing her solo, then stepping back, all of the flats including the bass line who had a sick triplet roll split, rolled as two pit members came out with a tom rack, making the crowd to roar again as the snares began to play on them.

We began the tom rack part, which was pretty fun to do, I had to admit this feeling I was having, from playing for this crowd was the best feeling I've ever had. Was this the feeling of performing for a crowd? I didn't know as the tingling in my spine wouldn't stop. Suddenly at the end, Tyler yelled out. "TAKE IT ZANE!" At the end of the tom rack part, I gritted my teeth as the whole section entered a measure rest.

"_DUT DUT DUT DUT!"_

I heard Helen scream at me. "GO ZANE!" I couldn't help but smirk a little.

The snares began to play their little ditty while the basses played a dampen groove, then Dale and I came in with a scrape split between us both, then we entered back with the snares, playing a similar part to the basses split, then we began the tom rack part again, except the snares were playing on their drum and shot instead of a tom. This was the moment, and I heard Richie growl, the anticipation building, the whole drumline was moving away from each other, surprising everyone, even Tyler.

Finally, the moment came, and I heard Richie:

"One, two, three, four…dut dut ROCK IT OUT!"

We all began to dance as we played the rock out section, everyone screaming for us as we grooved with the music. Finally, at the end, we just played diddles, then hit a shot.

"_**WHO!"**_

We ended the song, just with a loud ending on the drums as the crowd watched. We sat there, and the crowd just roared as we ended the song.

I couldn't resist the proud feeling I had. The tingling sensation that was overflowing in my body, the feeling of tears welling up from just pure excitement.

_Hopefully, that would happen with every performance._


	6. Work Day 2

"What a productive day, don't you think?" David asked as we laid in our beds. After the drum feature performance, we ate dinner then set the opener, my spots being all in the back, mainly, but at the end we push forward to the front with the winds.

"Whatever, it was boring as could be. Except for performing the drum feature, that was pretty bad ass." Dale said as he took a drink of his water jug. "Your solo was pretty clean too Zane, and you had some of the ladies staring us down during that." He then winked at me, while I just laughed a little.

"Pft, looking at you two? Please, I'm more sexy than you guys will ever be." David said, as he rubbed his chest seductively, making Richie laugh.

"You're more appealing than a dead deer on the side of the road."

"That's not what your mom told me the other night!"

As the two began to argue, I went into my own world. Dale put in his Ipod and listened to some rap while Storm fell asleep, dead as a rock. I sighed as I pulled out my phone, shocked to see about 10 text messages.

I read the first couple, some from old friends in Virginia, and some from my mom, but there was one from a number I never saw before, but the text gave it away.

_You did so good today! Text me back whenever, this is Raquel by the way. : )_

I smiled a bit as I read the text, and I texted her back immediately. I don't know why but I was growing this attraction to her. Maybe it was because of some of the stuff Helen told me? I didn't know. She texted me back.

_I'm just sitting here, reading a book, listening to the girls talk about the guys here. What about you?_

I told her I was just laying here, and asked why she wasn't in the conversation. Would it be weird for me to ask that? Would she constantly be talking about me? Or some other guy? I didn't know, I started to get kind of excited, worried, a mix. I didn't know how to feel. She texted me back.

_I'm not really big into that, haha I mean I like guys I just don't like talking about them ALL THE TIME! You know? And wow...you're in the top five!_

I blinked. What did she mean by that? I texted her that, and waited for her reply. I sighed as I scratched the back of my head. This was confusing, I didn't understand why I felt this way, so worked up over getting a text, from a girl? I just met yesterday? What the heck? She texted me back.

_You're number three of the hottest guys in band camp, just right behind Alex and Dale. Let's see, it's Dale, Alex, You, Jason, and Nick. I don't really agree, but oh well!_

Curiosity struck me, I wonder who she'd put on her top five? If I asked her, would she tell me, just like a friend? Or if I asked her would she refuse to tell me because I was on the tip top? I decided to, as I texted her that question. I put my phone down, and laid down. Man, was this weird. I was already starting to like a girl I just met yesterday. And at band camp nevertheless. She texted me back.

_Sorry, can't tell you. Primarily because you'd laugh at me. So no, I'm not telling you._

Suddenly I felt a bit crushed. I was hoping that she'd tell me. I sighed, putting my phone on the charger and I fell asleep.

* * *

_The next morning._

"Again...with running?" I asked, but Danny shook his head.

"No, we're gonna do real drum drills now. Put on the quads." It was just Danny and I, one on one. Sean couldn't be there for the morning, Dale was with Tyler again, and the other drummers were else where. Danny and I were on the practice field.

I put on my quads, and held them up to my chest as Danny picked out a pair of sticks. "Ok, we are track around camp, ok?"

"Track?"

"Yea, it's where you march small steps, playing. I mean, really small steps. Like this." Danny then showed a example, and I was shocked as can be. The steps looked like he wasn't doing it at all.

"What will I be playing?" I asked, and Danny shrugged.

"Everything, opener, feature, exercises, whatever I'm in the mood for." He then laughed a bit, and I shrugged.

I got in set, and put my quads down. Danny put on a hat, and put one on my head. "You'll thank me later. Now, whenever you have a set in the show where you have a hold, stop and play, then start marching again. This is gonna be long, you won't be stopping. Now-" Danny began clicking his sticks. "Legatos, then Double Beat, then Accent Tap, then Flow-Diddles, then straight into the Opener. Go."

I started to march the small steps as I began to play Legatos. It wasn't so bad outside, the weather being about 70 degrees in the morning. I was in step and in time with Danny as I finished Legatos, then went to Double Beat as Danny tapped me off. I kept going, focusing on where I was headed. I didn't understand why he wanted me to go around the whole camp.

* * *

_Later_

I groaned in pain as I continued to track, almost to the cafeteria now. The quads were pulling on my back as Danny walked along side me, still clicking his sticks. It's been about a hour now, around six or six thirty, I don't know I lost count. I groaned in pain as I continued to play the opener, finishing my rimmy solo.  
"Come on, take it." Danny said, hearing me groan. "We all had to go through it, Sean and Dale did. No reason you can't go through it either."

I growled as I continued to play, ignoring the piercing pain in my back. I pushed on, ending the opener, then Danny up the tempo. I began to march faster, still small steps, beginning to play the feature.

* * *

_Even more later_

I don't know what time it was, I was in so much pain I didn't know nor cared what time it was. I could barely see, yet I still played. Danny was still near me, clicking the sticks, not talking. The sun was beating down on me as we went passed L's house, playing the same stuff. I gritted my teeth, refusing to groan or moan. I was in so much pain but I wouldn't show it. I ended the opener again, Danny upping the tempo, and I began to play the feature, this time with as much intensity as I could dish out.

I played through the song, quickly and my stick heights out of control, but I didn't care. I played my solo, actually clean, and kept going. It was so hot, the pain was so much, I felt tears coming to my eyes. I didn't know how I felt about it anymore. This hurt so much.

I ended the feature with a big hit on the drums, and began to march again, waiting for Danny to tap me off for Legatos for probably the thousandth time, but he didn't, instead, he stopped me.

"Alright, relax." He took my drums off, and I literally fell to the ground, lying on my back, groaning. Danny started to laugh a little, taking out a water bottle and pouring it on me.

"Welcome to drumline, Zane. Welcome to quads."

"Dude it hurts so fucking bad." I said, tears coming, and Danny just shook his head.

"If you want it bad enough, you'll go through anything for it. Trust me." Danny helped me up and took me over to a tree for shade, and I just sat there, groaning as Danny laughed.

"Dude suck it up, come on." Danny said, and he sat down beside me.

"I didn't expect it to hurt this bad." I said, and Danny laughed.

"Thats what I said when I marched Vanguard. Those guys, damn. Are they tough. I'm shocked you didn't faint. Course, I wasn't taking it easy. Vanguard made me march two miles every friken day with full cuts."

"Full cuts?"

"Take your quads and add 10 pounds to it. I worked hard and long to get my chops this good." Danny said, and suddenly the band came out from their cabins as I sighed.

"I don't wanna get up." I said, and Danny laughed.

"Don't worry, I won't make you. I just made you track about two blocks in a hour and a half. I'm not so cruel to make you do that. Just chill out here. I'm gonna go get the rest of the line and we're gonna hang."

Danny got up and left as I laid on the tree, exhausted. I looked over to see Raquel, who was with Helen and Anna. She was smiling and talking, but then suddenly saw me. I waved a bit, expecting her to come over to see me, but her smile just faded, she looked away from me. Wait, why did she do that? Was it because I didn't text her back about that thing? She walked by me, ignoring me completely. Helen turned and glared at me too. Wait, what did I do?

"Ahahaha Zane got worked to hard." I looked over to see David, Dale, and the rest of the line. Catie came over and sat beside me.

"So you had to track? Oh how I miss that." She said, as David laughed.

"Yea like that one time when you pop your knee?"

"Oh man that sucked! Woody had to put up with all my bitching, remember that?" Catie asked, while Woody laughed.

"Ya, and TJ was at the point of crying because of all that tracking."

"Nuh uh Woody your just making that up!" TJ said, and I laughed a bit.

"Don't worry dude, I completely understand crying. That hurt."

"Well you'll get use to it Zane," I looked at Dale, who was sweating again. "It's a pain in the ass. Tyler has me doing it too."

"Art really doesn't have us doing anything except doing REALLY slow bass splits. I don't fucking UNDERSTAND THE POINT IN THAT!" Storm yelled, and Richie laughed.

"Oh please, Tyler made us track real slow bass splits when I was on the bass line!"

"Hey guys..."

We all looked over at Matt, who was holding up a leaf. "Does this look like a pot leaf to you?

For some odd reason, I don't know if it was the heat or the killer exhaustion, but we all started to crack up laughing, I ended up not being able to breathe.

For some reason, I felt a connection to these guys I never felt with anyone.


	7. The First Lot Show

"Man...time flies doesn't it?"

Zane sighed deeply as he packed all of his stuff together, as Dale did the same. Time shocking flew through the band camp time, and today was the last day of the away band camp. The timing couldn't of came any better, as Zane has had some great encounters the last few days.

The first started when he met two new people in the percussion section. Both in the front ensemble.

* * *

_Zane sighed deeply as he laid his drums down on the grass, lying on the ground as the rest of the drumline went off doing stupid things as they usually did. He was exhausted, probably bruised, and of course, burnt from the sun. He felt extremely light headed, and way to hot. They were doing marching drills as a percussion section, the pit playing as the battery played and marched their show._

_"Hey man, you alright?" He looked up to see a guy with glasses that became black due to the sunlight, Zane had no idea what they were called. His hair was shaved a bit, probably for the heat of the course of band camp. _

_"Yea, I'm just exhausted...who are you again?" Zane asked, while the stranger scratched the back of his head._

_"My name is Smitty, I play all the accessories in the pit." He said, and Zane nodded. _

_"Nice to meet you, I'm Zane."_

_Smitty and Zane had a good conversation for awhile. Turns out, Smitty was a freshmen as well. He originally played trumpet and baritone, but he couldn't resist the thought of playing percussion, dreaming of being on the bass line. However, he did not cut for auditions, and went to pit. He was planning on playing timpani, but there was no timpani in the CODES show, so he was put on all the accessories__._

_As they continued their conversation, a voice rang out._

_"Smitty, what the hell are you doing?"_

_They both turned to see another boy, with long brown hair, sort of wavy as he flipped it. In his hands were four mallets, in the appropriate Steven's grip._

_"Just talking to my new friend Zane, what's your problem Stevie?"_

_Stevie was the section leader of the pit, and a very talented mallet player. He was one of the few remaining vets of the percussion section, and he helped build the pit to what it is. Of course, he became very self-centered, and held a very high opinion of himself._

_"I don't see why you are, you need to be looking over your parts right now. You know, the stuff you can't play?"_

_Stevie walked off, towards the marimba and began to practice the show music. Smitty sighed as he looked at Zane._

_"Sorry bro, but I gotta go, talk to you later."_

_As soon as Smitty walked off, Zane heard Tyler yelling for his name. He scrambled up and got his drums, running to where the rest of the line was._

* * *

Zane sighed deeply as he walked out of the dorms with Dale, who was looking around. "I'm sure gonna miss this place." Dale said, as he scratched the back of his head.

Zane laughed a bit to himself, hoping he was kidding. The last week has been complete hell. He has never been so pushed in his life. He had sun burn on the back of his knees, his shoulders from taking his shirt off during runthroughs with the drumline. (L bluntly refused to have anyone take their shirts off with the band.)

"Why's that? This is so hard...harder than anything I have ever done." Zane said, as they began to walk to the buses with their stuff.

"Agreed, but it's so worth it in the end, hopefully you'll be saying that your senior year." Dale said, as they began to get closer to the buses. However, Dale stopped, and grabbed Zane, turning him towards him.

"Promise me something."

Zane just blinked.

"You will come back. This section has died out in the last couple of years. I don't want this section to suck. I can't let this section die. I need you to promise me to strive for greatness. Always."

Zane couldn't believe what he was hearing. Dale never really talked like that, to anyone, but the look in his eyes showed that he really meant it. Zane nodded.

"I will."

Dale smiled, a genuine one. Not any of the mischievous smiles he usually made.

"Good."

* * *

"Hey Zane, Zane wake up." Zane woke up on the bus, noticing everyone was already off. Beside him was Alex, who just pointed behind him.

"Everyone is already inside the school. How the hell do you fall asleep on the bus?"

Zane yawned, shrugging. He really didn't care how he did, but how beautiful was the nap he took. He stood up, stretching as he walked off the bus with Alex. He noticed that there were many cars around as he walked off the bus.

"Wait, why are there alot of cars here dude?" Zane asked, curious about the event.

"Meet the team. This is where the football team, dance team, cheerleaders, and we are introduced. It's boring, but we get to perform our show for the first time infront of a audience! Big one too...though it's the Friday night crowd. They really don't matter."

Zane nodded as they walked inside the band room, everybody sitting around eating. L noticed him, and started to laugh loudly, as everyone looked his way.

"I thought you were in the bus!"

Everyone else started to laugh at Zane's expense. He blushed a bit, moving towards the drumline, who was laughing the hardest. He sat down, and the laughter died, except for the drumline.

"You're a dumbass!" David yelled as everyone laughed. Zane just muttered a 'shut up' to everyone, and the laughter died down.

They began to talk about random things, as Zane just sat there, listening in.

"So...who do you think is the big competitors for this year?" David asked Dale, who shrugged.

"I don't know. Valley and Knight, for sure..."

"Fuck Knight High, damn fuckers think they are so good for beating us two years ago.." David said, as Zane blinked in confusion.

"Hey guys."

They looked over to see Tyler, who was smiling huge. "You guys better play well tonight...got alot of people coming to see you guys. Including people from Highlands, General, Dots, and of course Knight."

"Damn it did you invite them?"

"Yep, exactly why I say we warm up soon, hurry up in and eat. Oh, and wear this."

He threw a shirt at Dale, who looked at it, having a huge grin on his face. He then turned it to show everyone. Infront of it was a tenor drummer, who was playing hardcore, and on top read:

_**Dropping mad beats since 2001**_

He turned it around to show a pretty cool design, the top with two red wings, with the words: "Redskin High Drumline Tour!" And the list of names.

"Kick ass."

Tyler then handed everyone shirts, and Zane put his one on, feeling overwhelmed with pride as he did. He couldn't believe he was finally apart of a team. No, not a team.

_A family._

* * *

Zane sighed deeply as he put his drums on the crappy Ludwig stand, as the drumline was ready to warm up. The basses put theres on old Dynasty stands, while the snares had their harnesses on. Tyler was waiting, taking a drink of his coffee. After they were done, they got their sticks on out and got set.

"Legatos."

Richie began the tap off, and the exercise begun.

Suddenly, a couple of people of appeared, wearing Dyansty t-shirts showed up, watching the drumline carefully. Zane had no idea what was going on, as more people began to show up, wearing t-shirts representing other schools. Some older people came up, stood beside Tyler and began to talk. They began to talk casually, laughing a bit.

Tyler held up his hand, and they stopped.

Zane could tell they looked unimpressed. Then again, it was a simple Eights exercise, nothing to really get excited over.

"Double Beat, SCV."

Now that was a challenge. Of course, it was a little watered down, since they were still a high school line. The whole group's eyes averted to Zane. It seemed they knew that Zane was the newbie.

Dale started to click his sticks together, and then did the tap off. They began to play the piece.

As they played through, Zane started to groove with it, and the rest of the drumline noticed, starting to do the same. Zane hit a rim on the scrapes once or twice, but overall, the performance was alright and pretty clean. During the random rock out part. Dale took it, playing random rhythms as he got into it. He grinned crazy as he played. After the final note, he turned serious again. Richie did a random thing, and the rest of them hit there drums.

The group clapped, and one of them said something to Tyler. Tyler nodded.

"Alright, opener guys."

They got set, and Richie got the tempo. He looked around to make sure everyone was set, then tapped the drum four times. The basses and tenors started to click, then Richie came in. The rest of the snares joined.

They began to play the opener with intensity, trying to impress the crowd. The part came up for the solos, and the snares played their solos pretty decently, having some dirt. Then the tenor solo came, and Zane played with fire. He hit a rim, but he noticed a nod from some of them.

Towards the part where they were suppose to dut, Tyler shook his head to everyone else, and pointed at Zane. They all knew what it meant, and nodded. Zane did as well. Even though he thought his playing was mediocre, he atleast wanted to show he was a bad ass.

The moment came, and Zane took a deep breath.

"_Dut dut-"_

Oh how much bad luck did he have?

"_dUt DuT."_

His voice cracked awfully, making the group of people laugh hard, as did Tyler. The rest of the line gritted their teeth to hold their composure, since they have never heard anything like that before. It sounded like a dying cat being tortured to death with a hatchet. Zane kept playing though, his face red with embarrassment.

The group of people started to leave, probably heading to the stands. When they were gone, Storm was the first one to break set, falling to the ground crying. He was laughing so hard his face was turning purple, the rest of the line joining him. Zane, however, was looking down, red in shame. He couldn't believe he just did that, infront of some important people.

"Zane." He looked up to Tyler, who was infront of his drums. Tyler had a smile on his face, but unlike the rest of them, who were still rolling on the ground laughing, it was meaningful. As though he understood Zane's feelings.

"Back when I marched with the Blue Devils, I had to dut extremely loud, infront of the whole corp. Well, one day, I dut so loud my voice cracked, infront of 200 other people, who heard me. I understand how you feel, so don't worry about it. It happens. Just puberty man. Means you're becoming a man. Like Catie there."

Catie stopped laughing. "WHAT?"

Then everyone's attention went from Zane's blunder to Catie's gender. They made fun of her as she started to get red with anger, but even Zane knew she took it and laughed about it later on. He smiled, he loved these guys already.

"Battery." They all stopped and looked at L, who was already looking mad. "Get your crap on, we are about to hit the field in our first show of the season. No time to be a bunch of sexists."

"Ok Mr. Lavine sir!" Tyler said, as he saluted Lavin, whom Zane never knew what his real last name was. Lavine shook his head, walked back into the band room

Tyler laughed as the rest of the drumline got ready. He began to talk about some stuff, but Zane's mind was elsewhere. This was the first show of the year, his first show ever with the Redskin marching band. He was so pumped, yet, so nervous. More nervous than anything.

Yet, Zane was ready. He was ready to show people what he was made of. He was ready to impress those guys in the stands, to get their attention.

_Hey, the Redskin drumline is back!_

* * *

**I apologize for the long awaited update of This Is Us, but life has been quite complicated at times. I skipped the rest of band camp to get ready for the season chapters, since it will be alot easier to write since I already have a bunch of ideas. Staying in band camp was a major writer's block for me. The story will mainly comprise of four different type of chapters:**

**Football games**

**Competitions**

**Concert Band/Sectionals days**

**And the occasional in between, what they do in their off time from band.**

**The story will span over four years, so I hope you guys will stick with this story, and hey, maybe get more people to read it! **

**Thank you for your patience, the next chapter will be up very soon!**

**Q.P.**


	8. The First of Many

"Why the HELL do we have to stand in line to perform!" David yelled loudly as the other band members stood there just as annoyed as he was. The winds kept air as the drummers took their drums off. The colorguard was with the pit, waiting to set up.

"The dance team, what else? Friken skanks." Dale said, as the whole drumline turned to see the dance team quickly running towards them.

Zane just watched as most of them ran by, some of them acknowledging their existence while others didn't even care that they stood right there waiting for them to perform so they could perform. Was there any respect for the band? Zane sighed deeply as he held his drums up, not even really paying attention as he walked forward, thinking they were all done, when someone collided into him, toppling him over on the ground, sending his drums off.

Instead of the drumline rushing to help, they broke out laughing as usual. Zane growled in annoyance as he looked up to see his face was met with another's. He was shocked, not by the fact someone hit him and sent his drums over.

He was more shocked that his eyes were locked with the most mesmerizing eyes he ever saw. They were a light blue, like a sky on a warm summer day. His eyes broke from the trance as he looked at the face of the owner of the eyes. It was a girl, who had a tan complexion that had glitter all over her face, beautiful white teeth, and flaming hot lips. Of course, it was make-up, but Zane still thought she was the most beautiful thing he ever saw. She sighed, picking up her stuff.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going!" She said, as Zane was just speechless. He couldn't think of anything to say to her.

She noticed Zane's silence, and smiled. "Are you like, mute or something?" She asked, and Zane shook his head quickly, blushing a bit.

"N-No, sorry I was just-"

Before Zane could speak, Matt spoke up. "He was taken back by your beautiful features."

Zane turned around and shot a glare at Matt, while the rest of the drumline snickered. He mouthed a '_piss off_' and turned back around quickly, just to see the girl was snickering along with them.

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment. Sorry I gotta go, nice running into you!" She said, as she got up and quickly started to run towards the group of dancers who was laughing with her as they looked at Zane, who just got up.

"Matt..."

Matt turned, looking at Zane. "Yes Zane?"

"I'm going to KILL you." Zane said, his eyes narrowed, malice in his voice. He was mad that Matt had to embarrass him like that. Infront of a girl like that. Of course, Matt just snickered as the rest of the drumline did. Dale went up behind Zane and shook him.

"Chill bro. Not like you and her are gonna get together anyway. You're in band, she's on the dance team. They're mostly skanks anyway."

Woody nodded in agreement. "Trust me man, I tried my freshmen year. I got turned down pretty harshly."

Zane sighed, picking up his drums and placing them back on his harness. They were right. She was way out of his league. He looked at the rest of the drumline, who was just talking. Dale was in a conversation with the rest of the seniors, talking about how this was the last first performance they will ever have. Matt and TJ were talking about a video game. Storm was just standing there like a doofus, watching the dance team perform.

Zane looked over to watch as well. They were dancing to a pop song Zane didn't know, but that didn't catch his attention. That girl did. He wonder why he was staring at her, but he couldn't help it. She just had this aura around her that instantly attracted him to her.

"Everyone get ready, they are almost done!" Lavine yelled out, and the drumline quickly scurried to get in their set positions.

When they got in set position, Lavine pointed at Lisa, who clapped her hands together.

"Band, attention!"

The winds got in set position as the drummers hit their drums. Lisa turned around, clapped her hands four times to set the tempo, and Woody did the taps. They started to march on the field, the dance team running the front under the stands to watch surprisingly.

The crowd clapped and cheered a bit, not knowing what to expect this year. The only people to yell were the band parents of course, including Zane's mom, who yelled out: "That's my baby boy!" Zane thanked the Lord she didn't scream his name.

As they marched toward the center of the fifty, Lisa clapped very loudly, and the Woody tapped his drum four times, making the band stop. They separated to do a warm up.

Tyler would usually be there to help them, but he was up in the stands with the critics. As they turned their back, Richie tapped off Legatos, which the drumline played, wanting to get warm up over with.

When the warm up was over, they got in a huddle. Richie sighed deeply.

"Alright guys, first show. And yes, we have critics in the audience. So make sure you pay attention to your direction changes and feet during marching. Zane and Storm, don't feel nervous, turn that into energy. And remember, feel the hype. Alright guys, you ready."

The drumline began to sway as they stood in the circle, all of them, even Zane and Storm, were pumped up. Richie then yelled out.

"DRUMS, WHAT DO WE MAKE?"

The whole drumline yelled in response.

"SWEET BEATS!"

Richie then played a little lick on his drums, and the drumline quickly played a down beat.

They ran to their opening sets, and Zane stood in his, breathing deeply.

_Ladies and gentlemen, after a painful month away at band camp, this talented group of individuals wish to perform their program, CODES, for us tonight. Under the direction of Mike Lavine, this is the Redskin Marching Band!_

The crowd clapped and cheered as Lisa stood on her podium, making sure everyone was set. She then raised her hands.

"1...3...1 2 3 4!"

The show began.

The basses and quads began to click as the snares began to play their hoes. When Zane started playing on the spock, he began to move, his marching alright as far as he knew. The winds finally came in, and the drumline prepared themselves as the big hit came, the hype causing them not to play under the horns at all, but they didn't care.

The solos came up as Zane and Dale prepared for their solo. The snares played their solo pretty clean, making Zane nervous. He shook it off, however, when he saw that girl watching him intently. He was surprised, but he played through the solo.

The solo had no rims whatsoever, making Dale's eyes open wide. He did not turn to Zane, however, as he was focused playing through the show.

When they got to the fugue, Zane's playing began to become more fluent, which Dale took notice too. During the show, his playing was way better than it was during practice, which was probably due to the hype. Zane still had problems with stick heights though, but that will come in time.

They got to the sixteenth note crescendo, but one of the snares ticked, making it completely dirty. Zane noticed Tyler shake his head, while one of the critics say something to him.

They marched on, playing their opener with as much ferocity as they could, and when they got to the push to the front, the drumline couldn't contain themselves as they got to the measure of silence. They dut loud and proud, as the crowd roared from the intensity.

When they ended the opener, the drumline were the only one who stepped out, nodding their head to the audience, which surprised them. Matt mumbled something since he was behind the snares, and Lavine couldn't see him.

"Um...guys, what the fuck."

Lisa, who had her back turned to the audience, eyes were open in shock as she stared them down, and Lavine was giving them the most awful stare that Zane has ever recieved.

Lisa began to count off the ballad, and the flats quickly marched off.

The drumline did not play at all during the ballad, they just marched. The ballad went by quick for the drumline, and the opening of the drum feature was on it's way.

The winds held a chord, and the pit stopped playing, and Lisa yelled out.

"1...3...1 2 3 4!" It was alot faster than the other count off she did, as the drum feature began.

The drummers dut as Woody played his crescendo part, coming in with the little things. At the end, they all of the flats did a triplet roll, which didn't become a crap-shoot but was still a tad uneven. Zane noticed the critics nodding.

The drum feature had very complex drill while the winds stood in pods back field, the drumline sprinting all over the field. Zane actually thanked God that Danny put him through those torture sessions in the morning so he could have the endurance he has right now. The other drummers had a harder time than Zane did.

When the basses played their solo, the crowd actually cheered. Zane was surprised, but he kept his game face on.

It got to the diddle splits, they marched in a triangle, with Dale and Zane in front. When they got to the end, they began to do their solos, Richie started off, playing clean, hitting a ping at the end of it, putting some body movement into it.

Dale was next playing his, and ending with a new double stop he put in, looking to the ground as he did. David then played his, actually being quite serious till the end, where he said something that only the drummers could hear. "BALLS!"

Zane kept cool, and played his kinda clean, ending with the shot, throwing his stick up and catching it. Catie played hers, and ending with a shot like Zane, then coming back in with a giant triplet roll that sounded ok, though Zane wasn't quite up there yet.

They played their tom part, and growled as the rest of the winds came back, doing some body movements that Lavine put in during band camp. The intensity during the drum feature was evident that even the crowd could feel it.

Near the end of the drum feature, Dale said: "Zane, take us home!"

The drumline stopped and there was silence except for Zane, who during the hype couldn't help himself.

"One, two, three, four..._dut dut dut dut!_"

The winds came in with a part that Lavine wrote for them, and the snares played their little solo, actually a little dirty because stick heights were everywhere. The tenors played theirs the exact same, because hype was going crazy.

The drumline went back to the tom part but without the toms, the winds were behind them just playing. Before the groove, Richie yelled out.

"One, two, three, four...dut dut ROCK IT OUT!"

The drumline began to groove as the crowd all cheered, even the dance team did. At the end of the groove, the drumline ran towards the front of the field, and the winds followed, playing a long chord as the drummers played a sixteenth note diddle frenzy, then into a triplet roll, then straight sixteenth notes. They hit their spot, right infront of the pit.

They screamed _hoo_, which they got from the Cadets, and ended the piece with gigantic double stops on the flats, making the crowd stand up in cheer.

However, a staff member and band director were not happy.

* * *

"What was THAT?"

The winds were up against the wall, while the drumline was in the middle of the band room. The pit and colorguard were at the door, hiding from the wrath of Lavine.

Lavine's face was angry as the drumline just stood there, taking the anger. Tyler was beside him, but not as equally mad as he was.

"Sir, I have no idea what you are talking about." Dale said, who stood infront of the drumlline, defending them.

"When you did that stand out! I took that out TODAY!" Lavine said, yelling loudly as Dale shook his head in defense.

"We never rehearsed it without it! We never heard anything about it!" Dale said, as the drumline began to agree with him. Zane was absolutely terrified of Lavine now, that man could shout.

Suddenly, Lavine walked away from the drumline and towards the winds.

"You all didn't TELL them!"

The winds kept silent, and the pit, guard, and some of the band parents walked away from the band room, obviously not wanting to get in the way.

"This is ONE band ladies and gentlemen! ONE! Like that crappy Drumline movie, this is one band and one sound! It isn't the Winds featuring the percussion and guard! How dare you all not tell them, I don't care if you FORGOT! As soon as I TOLD you all you should of went and told them!"

Suddenly, someone mumbled something, and Lavine's attention was turned to them.

"What was that? Come on, whoever said it say it louder!"

"It was just a Friday night performance sir...aren't you overreacting?" One of the tubas said, as the rest of the winds stood motionless. No one ever said a statement like that to Lavine. Ever.

Lavine shook his head.

"We had alot of other BAND directors watching us. Alot of other BAND member watching us. Even JUDGES were watching us!" Lavine said, as he walked back to the board.

Tyler then walked forward. "This is actually a big deal guys. Now I may just be the percussion instructor, but I've been around. The first performance is always where people get to get the first judgment on how a band does this year. And I gotta say, where it would of been ok for the drumline to do something like that, if it wasn't for you guys were standing complete set waiting for Lisa's orders. Not only did you make yourselves look bad, you mainly made the drumline look bad. Like they don't follow the rules their band director give them during a show. I got some complaints that I had to defend the percussion section I teach."

Zane was surprised about how surprisingly chill Tyler was. It was like he was the kinda good cop while Lavine was the bad cop with a anger issue.

Lavine's anger died down, but he still was frustrated as he spoke. "You all need to get your crap together. This band has a chance, I will not tolerate this again. Except a hard practice first day of school. You all...deserved it. Dismissed." Lavine then walked in his office, closing the door behind him.

The winds looked at each other confused, but started to put up stuff anyway. The pit came back in and put their stuff up as did the guard. The drumline began to put their drums away when Tyler called them.

"Percussion, meet me outside when you're done."

When Zane was done, he came outside to see Tyler leaning on his car. The rest of the drumline came along behind Zane, along with the pit.

"Alright guys...so the show wasn't awful." Tyler explained, and he nodded back towards the band room. "That wasn't your fault either. The winds should of told you."

"I had a talk with them. It was one of them damn freshmen who was suppose to tell us." TJ said, while the rest of the drumline groaned.

"Anyway, guys, there was some dirt in the feature which we will address Monday."

"Wait, what? Last week is the last free week we have until school!" Matt said, and Tyler shrugged.

"Yup. We're having it Monday nine to nine. We're gonna be cleaning and adding visuals. L said it was cool too."

They all groaned, but nodded anyway.

"Good, well, I'm gonna go home. See ya'll bright and early Monday morning!" Tyler said, getting in his car.

The rest of the drumline sighed as he rolled off, all beginning to leave. Zane as about to call his mom until Richie hit him on the back.

"You going to Friday's?"

"Friday's?" Zane asked.

"Yea, it's a tradition. After every home football game or event we go to Friday's. The whole band does, you wanna come?"

* * *

"I'm SO hungry!" Alex yelled out. Zane was surprised to see only a few of the band people there. They were sitting across a huge table.

Both of the Alex were there, both complaining about how hungry they were. Helen was sitting beside of Anna and tenor sax Alex. Two twins also sat at the table, they looked strange, like aliens to Zane. Though it was mean, he couldn't help but think that. They were bugged eyes, each with curly red hair and freckles. They were very identical, like the guys from the Harry Potter movies. Beside them was a guy with a buzzed head and glasses, talking to colorguard member who kissed Zane and another who was a bit heavy set, with glasses and long brown hair.

The drumline, minus Dale, sat in booths, and of course, Ritchie snagged the last seat. They ignored Zane, who just shrugged and sat down beside the Alex that Dale told him about. He stopped and just gave Zane a weird look, while the tenor sax Alex and Helen just looked at him.

"Um. What makes you think you can sit here bro?"

Zane shrugged, about to get up until Helen started to laugh.

"Lang's messing with ya, sit down." Zane was surprised to hear her talk to him, since she didn't speak to him at all during the time at band camp.

"Lang?" He asked, and the other Alex smiled.

"Yea, just call me Lang. Less confusion because of this guy right here." Lang said, as Zane sighed in relief, but then his attention turned to Helen.

"So, wait, I gotta ask why are you talking to me now since you ignored me the rest of band camp?"

Helen shrugged. "Well you didn't talk to me. That and Raquel was so mad at you." Suddenly, Alex's face turned dark as Lang nodded.

"Yea man, she was so mad at you. You blew her down."

Zane just looked at them as the waiter asked them what they wanted to drink. He was confused. Why was Raquel mad at him? He didn't do anything to her. Infact, he was nice to her. As far as he knew. Wait, what if she took that for being mean? Wait, how could she?

"Sir..?"

Zane snapped as he looked up at the waiter, who was tapping his foot. "What would you like to drink?"

"W-water, please. Sorry." The waiter shrugged and walked off, leaving Zane back into this drama.

"What did I do? I didn't do anything." Zane said, trying to defend himself.

"You don't know what you did? Man, you're hopeless Zane.." Helen said, laughing a little bit. "Though I don't take sides, I gotta admit, you ignoring her was cold."

"Ignoring her? What do you mean?" Zane asked, as the waiter returned with their drinks. Zane took his, taking a sip, then sitting it down. "I didn't do anything wrong to her. I don't get it."

Suddenly, when the waiter was out of sight, Alex slammed the table, making his drink topple over and spill on the table, getting a bit on himself.

"You FUCKING ignored her text messages asshole!"

Everyone at the table was quiet, and Zane noticed how red Alex's face was. He looked like he was about to jump over the table and tackle him.

"Alex, calm the fuck down." He heard the buzzed guy down the table say, while Alex growled, getting up and walking out the door.

Zane just looked at Helen, who nodded. "He's right, I was there when it happened. She texted you saying you were cute and that you were really nice, she'd like to get to know you better, but you just kinda blew her off."

"What? I never got anything like that from her!" Zane said, defending himself, when suddenly he noticed something. His pockets were empty. His pockets were never empty. Usually, he would have his phone on him the whole time.

"Yea, he's not lying. It ended with her saying something about how he'd laugh at her. He must of not gotten any of the texts."

He looked over to see Lang, holding his phone in his hand, going through it. Zane grabbed his phone. "What the hell man!"

Lang laughed a bit as he just shrugged. "It's alright bro, I do that to everyone. I just had to make sure. I'm kinda of a klepto, but not really. I don't steal, I take and borrow."

Helen laughed as she cleaned up Alex's mess. "He somehow managed to get in the girl's dorm last year and took my bra. Hung it over Lavine's door post. I almost shoved his baritone somewhere that it would never come out."

"Yea, I remember that pretty well. I remember that one time Dale found your panties on top of his suitcase after ACCs...that was all Lang and David."

Zane looked to see the buzzcut guy, smiling as he took Alex's seat. "He won't be back for awhile, so I'll just keep it warm. My name is Kyle, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Zane said, and Kyle pointed down the line.

"Those two kids with the freckles? The twins? Their names are Ron and Jon. They play trumpet with Helen here."

Helen cringed at the sound of their name. "They're...interesting characters, I'll tell you that much." Zane looked at them and they just sat there, blankly staring back at him. He was a little creeped, turning his attention back to Kyle, who was laughing.

"Yup, and those two down there? That's Laura and Jenelle. Jenelle was the one who kissed you that day at band camp."

Helen laughed. "She would NOT stop talking about how soft your lips were! Like, they were like a baby's butt cheeks, but on your lips!" Zane blushed and drove back into his seat with that comment.

"Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Sorry. I tend to do that alot." Kyle said, and Helen returned to her serious look.

"Well, she thought you ignored her. It sucks for her. I suggest sometime you get a hold of her and talk to her about it."

Suddenly, Alex walked back over to the table, still looking angry. Kyle got up quickly and scurried back to his seat, while Alex retook his seat. He looked at Zane, and sighed.

"I'm sorry about that...that was immature. Raquel means alot to me. I don't get why you did that to her."

"Alex, he didn't know about it. His shitty phone didn't get the messages." Lang defended the clueless drummer, and Alex turned red, but not in anger this time. Pure embarrassment.

"Oh, dude, I'm so sorry about that. I-I feel really stupid now..." Alex said, putting his head down as Zane shook his head.

"It's alright, don't worry about it.." Zane said.

They began to talk about other things. About band camp and their experiences with it. When Zane told them about his grueling experience tracking and marching, all of them looked at him shock. They weren't use to that critical training by themselves, and couldn't imagine doing that all morning.

"That's like...brutal. I mean, when we're all with Lavine it's rough as hell. But damn..." Lang said, as Zane just shrugged it off.

"Lavine's a asshole. I don't see why he's a band director-" Alex said, but Helen cut him off.

"Actually, he's really nice. He actually gives me private lessons outside of band...I never heard him play but he really helps out. He says I can get first trumpet easily if I wanted too, but I just want to stay where I am now."

"Well you are pretty good Helen, damn you need to try out for a corp." Helen laughed at Lang's remark.

"Yea, maybe next year...I'm thinking about the Blue Stars, but I don't know.."

"Excuse me."

They all looked over to beside of Zane, who turned to be surprised to see the person speaking to them.

It was the dance team member who Zane collided into.

"I'm SO surprised to see you here!" She said, talking to Zane, who just turned red in embarrassment. Alex looked at Zane, and back at the girl.

"You know him?"

The girl smiled. "Yea, we bumped into each other at Friday Night Lights. Apparently, he's taken a liking to little ol me." She said, as Alex just laughed a bit.

"N-No, it's not that, you just uh...I'm sorry about-uh..yea..." Zane couldn't find the words to speak for some reason. He was just tongue tied, for some odd reason around this girl.

She laughed a bit, mainly at Zane's expense. "My name is Naomi. I'm a freshmen, which I guess you are too?"

Zane just nodded, and finally could speak. "I'm Zane, nice to meet you.." He said, and Naomi smiled sweetly at him.

"Well, it was nice bumping into you for the second time Zane. Well, not literally this time. I'm just eating with my friends and I saw you. I just really wanted to say hey." She explained, and looked at the rest of the group of people, even the drumline, who were surprised to see her. The only one who wasn't was Alex, who was just getting a good laugh out of Zane's reaction.

"Uhh..yea, it's nice to bump into you too. I'm really sorry about that by the way, I should of paid attention-" Before Zane could continue, Catie spoke up.

"Oh Zane, you were paying attention to her pretty little face, weren't you honey?" She said, but she noticed Zane put his hand behind his back, flipping her off without Naomi seeing. Instead of brushing it off, Catie got up and put Zane in a chokehold, making him lose all air.

"Don't flip me off, I don't like to take offers from little boys like you!" Catie said, while Zane gasped for air. Surprisingly, Naomi just giggled a bit at Zane's reaction, and waved at him.

"Well, I gotta go back to my table. It was nice meeting you Zane..hopefully we bump into each other again sometime." She said, walking off.

Zane pushed Catie off him quickly, and was just able to get a "Yea, you too" to her, which he found incredibly stupid.

"Good job Zane, blew it with one of the most popular freshmen in school..." Storm said, as he shook his head. Everyone started to laugh, while Zane just sighed.

"I hate my life."

"Oh Zaney-poo, don't be like that. Everything is gonna be a-ok!" Helen said, and Zane just looked at her with a very annoyed expression.

"Zaney-poo?"

"Yep, my pet name for you. Oh this is gonna be a wonderful year!" Helen said, as the waiter returned.

"Are you all ready to order?"

Lang put his hands up to the sky. "Thank you LORD! Let's get some grub!"

Zane sighed deeply as he looked at the group around him, but he couldn't help but have a faint smile, wondering what life will be like with these people for the next couple of months.

* * *

"Dut...dut...dut dut dut dut!"

The met was on 180, as the drumline marched across the asphalt, playing their feature with everything they got. Zane was focusing on his sound quality as he marched, the late August heat getting to him. All he wore was a pair of shorts, a pair of aviators on his face.

Across the field was Tyler and Sean, whom came to watch them after his college band camp. Sean looked over at the caption head, who was watching the drumline with alot of focus on the quads.

"Sean, do you notice how much difference there is between Dale and Zane?" Tyler asked, while Sean turned his head to look at the two.

"Yea..why? Haven't you noticed?"

Tyler laughed a bit while he watched the drumline play their solos. "Not till yesterday. Zane is showing alot of potential each day I watch him drum. He may not act like it, but he's very passionate about what he's doing right now. He's already made alot of improvement just in these couple of months. Dale, however, is arrogant about his abilities right now. He's pretty confident that he is the best drummer on the line. Now, I like confidence, but the way he feels is to far. Zane's technique..is more fluent than Dale's."

Sean nodded, and pointed at Zane.

"I think he has more potential than Dale and I ever did. He's not a natural, but he has alot of drive to work."

Tyler nodded.

"Hopefully, we can get him to stay and become better. He is gonna be the only veteran flat we will have next year."

"Don't worry about next year's line, focus on the one now. I'm afraid to say, the snares don't have any uniformity of technique at all. David's really stubborn about changing and Catie just won't. They both need to get the hang of Richie's. That's gonna kill you guys, along with Zane and Dale. In my opinion, Dale needs to learn Zane's technique. He kinda has a Tim Jackson thing going on."

Tyler nodded, and was surprised to see the drumline run back to their opening sets of the show. Richie ran back to the met, changing back to the opener tempo.

"Well. Atleast they are making up for the mistake they made Friday. I'll worry about the technique soon enough. The first competition is only a month away."

* * *

Zane sighed deeply as he put his drums away. The practice was pretty brutal, and he probably had sunburns on his back. Tyler had ripped them apart after practice, expecting better from the Redskin line. The seniors, mad and upset with themselves, quickly put their stuff up and left, without saying a word to any of the other percussion members. The pit was also scurrying to leave, since they weren't really rip into, they had played their parts actually well.

Tyler and Sean left as well, wanting to grab a bite. Storm and TJ left as well, going home to play some video games. That left Zane alone. He was surprised to see that he was the only person there.

"Hey Zane."

He turned around and jumped to see Smitty, who was pointing to the door. "I'm just chilling out here, if you want some company."

Zane nodded. "Thanks man. I thought I was the only one here."

"Nah, I gotta wait on my parents anyway. Are you?" He asked as Zane closed the door to the percussion closet, walking outside with him. The sun was still out, so he put his aviators back on. He decided to not wear his shirt, since he was probably burnt anyway.

"Yea I guess, I haven't called yet. I actually don't live that far from the school, so I may just walk." Zane said, and Smitty shook his head.

"No way! I'll ask if you can ride with my parents-"

"No I don't want to trouble you dude. I'll just walk home. I need the exercise anyway." Zane said, and Smitty laughed.

"Sure you do...asshole. Hey, wanna go watch the dance team? I hear their practicing inside the school. I need to pick up my schedule anyway."

"Why would I want to watch the dance team?" Zane asked, and Smitty shrugged his shoulders, with a smirk on his face.

"I don't know, cause their hot as hell." He noticed Zane rub the back of his head as started to walk towards the main building.

"I gotta pick up my schedule anyway..."

As Zane and Smitty walked in, they bumped into Helen, who was carrying a piece of paper with her. Zane was surprised to see her, especially at how she was dressed. She wore a pair of jean shorts, a white tank top, and actually had make up on, her hair was down. She was carrying her keys with her, and she smiled.

"Well hi Zaney-poo! What's ya doing with your shirt off?"

"Just got done at practice, picking up my schedule, why are you dressed like that?" Zane asked, and Helen just blinked.

"Like what?"

"Like..girly."

"I'm a girl Zane, I don't have rehearsal today. I'm not like...getting ready to go to prom or something." Helen said, but was surprised when she heard a bit of a snicker.

"But a girl should always look her best, that's why you don't have a boyfriend." Zane looked from behind Helen to see a girl wearing a purple casual dress, wearing alot of make up. She had blue eyes, and her hair was permed into dark ringlets. Zane had to admit, she was actually pretty attractive.

Helen shot a glare back at her, then smirked a bit. "Yea, that's why I made out with Anthony while you just sat right beside of us on the band bus back home. Oh yea, and don't forget that I wasn't wearing make up either."

The girl's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Oh, I remember. He was just a crush. To bad I hear alot of the guys in your section like to look at my ass when I march by them."

Zane then remembered seeing this girl at band camp. She was a clarinet, and was always prettied up, never once was seen without make up. She somehow managed to get there on time, every single time. Even when she sweat some of it off, she would always have some kind of thing with her to fix it.

"I'm pretty sure these two do the same...well, except for the nerdy one. He's in the pit."

Suddenly, Smitty looked down, hurt by the comment she made. Zane shook his head.

"I don't really have a set near you...and I'm not into big asses."

The girl's eyes widened at the comment, she then blushed, and walked out of the school quickly, while Helen and Smitty couldn't contain themselves.

"Oh my god, I love you man." Smitty said, as Zane smiled.

"Well, I mean, she does..." Before Zane made a actual comment about how she may of had a big one, but a nice one, Helen cut him off.

"Man, I hate that chick. Always prettied up, every single day. It's like she's trying to whore herself out to the band. Even the color guard girls aren't as bad as her!"

"Carmandie? She's always been like that. I go to church with her. Not like she notices, anyway." Smitty said, while Zane just looked at him.

"You know her that well?"

"Well, not really know her, but I've been in her youth group. I'm usually ignored. She mistreats everyone she knows, except for the guys she likes. It's pretty bad."

Helen nodded in agreement, then looked at her phone. "Oh shit, I'm suppose to be at the mall in five minutes. Oh well." She quickly grabbed Zane and gave him a hug. "See you next Monday, be ready for practice!"

She then waved at Smitty, running out of the school. Smitty looked at Zane in envy, while Zane shrugged. They walked over towards the cafeteria, where there were tables spread out. One had Freshmen printed on the side, and Zane went to look for his schedule. Smitty quickly found his his, then walked over to Zane, still very envious of the tenor player.

"I don't get how you are so good with the women." Smitty said, and Zane laughed a little as he picked up his schedule.

"I don't know either...I don't think they like me that way, but as a friend."

"ZANE!"

Suddenly, they looked up to see have the dance team looking at them, including Naomi, who was smiling. "What are you doing here? Coming to see me?"

Smitty noticed that Zane's face, and even some part of his body was turning red as he looked down, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"No, just picking up my schedule..." He said, and Naomi smiled, then turning to Smitty.

"How are you? I haven't talk to you in.."

"A year?" Smitty said, surprised that she was talking to him.

"Yea, sorry about that. Anyway, Zane, how are you? You look pretty burnt." Some of the dance team members were giggling while Zane didn't look back up at her.

"Just had drumline practice."

"Percussion practice." Smitty corrected him, but the dance team members didn't really seem to care about what Smitty had to say.

"Cool, anyway, I was having a party at my house tomorrow night. I was wondering if you'd like to come. You can bring him and Alex along. We'd love to have you!" Naomi said, and that surprised both of the band kids.

"Uh..yea, sure."

"Great! Here is my number!" Naomi seemed to expect him to say yes as she handed him a paper, nicely folded. "Just text me and let me know its you, I'll send you directions." She said, as she smiled at him. She was poked on the shoulder by another dance team member, and she pointed back to the gym. "Well, I gotta go back to practice, I'll see you tomorrow! Bye Zane."

She quickly ran back to the gym with the other dance team members, while Smitty turned and looked at Zane, who just shook his head walking off.

"I don't wanna watch them anymore."

The pit member laughed, and shook his head.

"I figured you wouldn't."

Zane sighed as he walked out of the front door.

_This is gonna be one hell of a year._

* * *

**I do realize that I changed the story from first person to third. Let's just say the first couple of chapters were Zane's view of his band camp experience. Also, some characters are still needed for future chapters (I can't promise they will make a appearence in the next chapter, but I do promise they will be in the story.)**

**This chapter was kind of rushed, but it's the longest I've written so far. The next one will be up as soon as I can!**

**Q.P.**


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